"Mentally ill people were kept in the same facilities with prisoners, chained in darken closed spaces, lying in their own filth, without adequate clothing, and abused physically and sexually." -(Reddi, 2005)
Topic:
Topic:
Traveling the United States in the hopes of improving the lives of the mentally incapacitated is what Dorothea Dix is most known for.
Importance:
Importance:
Children and adults with disabilities would be shackled on walls in chambers with little light, heat or comfort if not for Dorothea Dix's impact on America.
Influence:
Influence:
As one of the most influential women of her time, Dorothea lived her life delivering speeches to crowds of people, telling them about the conditions of mental institutions in the US.
Transition Sentence:
Transition Sentence:
It's hard to believe that such an amazing person was a ever an innocent child.
Paragraph Two:
Details of Birth or Beginning of Event:
April 4, 1802, the day Mary Bigelow Dix gave birth to a beautiful girl. Mary originally named her daughter Dolly, but Dorothea later changed her name to Dorothea.
Important Events: Dorothea and her mother, Mary, and father, Joseph, fled Hampden, Maine, Dorothea's birthplace, shortly before the War of 1812. Dorothea's life balanced on a thin tightrope, going from her father's drunken abusive rages and her mother's unstable mental health. Throughout her childhood Dorothea and her parents moved several times, living in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts
Details of Death or End of Event:
Dorothea retired at age 79, she had become "Depressed by deteriorating accommodations and programs for the insane, she did not talk about her work; nor would she cooperate with those who inquired about her life and career."(Viney) Dorothea died in 1887 and was buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Transition:
Paragraph Two:
Details of Birth or Beginning of Event:
April 4, 1802, the day Mary Bigelow Dix gave birth to a beautiful girl. Mary originally named her daughter Dolly, but Dorothea later changed her name to Dorothea.
Important Events: Dorothea and her mother, Mary, and father, Joseph, fled Hampden, Maine, Dorothea's birthplace, shortly before the War of 1812. Dorothea's life balanced on a thin tightrope, going from her father's drunken abusive rages and her mother's unstable mental health. Throughout her childhood Dorothea and her parents moved several times, living in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts
Details of Death or End of Event:
Dorothea retired at age 79, she had become "Depressed by deteriorating accommodations and programs for the insane, she did not talk about her work; nor would she cooperate with those who inquired about her life and career."(Viney) Dorothea died in 1887 and was buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Transition:
After her shaking childhood, Dorothea decided to dedicate the rest of her life to improving the lives of the mentally ill.
Paragraph Three:
Importance with Four Reasons:
"Dorothea's second career began when she was 39 years old. In March of 1841 she entered the East Cambridge Jail. She had volunteered to teach a Sunday school class for women inmates. Upon entering the jail she witnessed such horrible images that her life, from that point on, was changed forever. Within the confines of this jail she observed prostitutes, drunk, criminals, retarded individuals, and the mentally ill wereall housedd together in unheated, unfurnished, and foul-smelling wuarters (Viney and Zorich, 1982). When she asked why the jail was in these conditions her answer was, 'the insane do not feel heat or cold' (1982)." -(Bumb) The conditions of jails would be much like this jail that Dorothea visited if not for her diligent work for he under funded inane asylums. "With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Dix- a age 59- offered her services to the Union Army. Although Dix was not formally trained as a nurse, her tenacity and exceptional skills impressed the secretary of war, Simon Cameron, who appointed her as the superintendent of Union Army Nurses," -(Reddi, 2005) Dorothea's work as a nurse probably saved many soldiers lives, which makes her endeavors as a nurse important.
Influence on Modern Day America:
Summarize Importance:
Summarize Influence:
Paragraph Three:
Importance with Four Reasons:
"Dorothea's second career began when she was 39 years old. In March of 1841 she entered the East Cambridge Jail. She had volunteered to teach a Sunday school class for women inmates. Upon entering the jail she witnessed such horrible images that her life, from that point on, was changed forever. Within the confines of this jail she observed prostitutes, drunk, criminals, retarded individuals, and the mentally ill wereall housedd together in unheated, unfurnished, and foul-smelling wuarters (Viney and Zorich, 1982). When she asked why the jail was in these conditions her answer was, 'the insane do not feel heat or cold' (1982)." -(Bumb) The conditions of jails would be much like this jail that Dorothea visited if not for her diligent work for he under funded inane asylums. "With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Dix- a age 59- offered her services to the Union Army. Although Dix was not formally trained as a nurse, her tenacity and exceptional skills impressed the secretary of war, Simon Cameron, who appointed her as the superintendent of Union Army Nurses," -(Reddi, 2005) Dorothea's work as a nurse probably saved many soldiers lives, which makes her endeavors as a nurse important.
Transition:
Tremendous time and effort is needed to be such a memorable and influential woman as Dorothea Dix.
Paragraph Four:
Influence on Colonial America:
Paragraph Four:
Influence on Colonial America:
"I tell what I have seen," -(Dix) Dorothea's influence on Colonial America was great because of her work in all the states of America. She had traveled to every single state creating memorials of the conditions of mental institutions of every state, telling of the sights she saw in the hospitals. Dorothea delivered speeches to citizens and the governments of each state, pleading for the funding of new hospitals, or the repair of old ones, because of this, her views were widely known.
Influence on American History:
Influence on American History:
"During the following decades, her tireless crusade extended far and wide, including outside the United States. She helped establish 32 new hospitals in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, north Carolina, and Maryland." -(Reddi, 2005) Many institutions in American history were founded by Dorothea Dix.
Influence on Modern Day America:
Dorothea showed Americans that the mentally ill could do America no harm, if she had not had the compassion to tell America, modern day American's would still fear the mentally ill.
Transition:
Transition:
Dorothea was very well known for her efforts.
Paragraph Five:
Restate Topic:
Dorothea was a monumental social reformer.
Paragraph Five:
Restate Topic:
Dorothea was a monumental social reformer.
Summarize Importance:
With all of Dorothea's extraordinary work as a nurse and representative of the mentally ill, Dorothea is of extreme importance to history, because without her conditions for the mentally ill could have been terrible.
Summarize Influence:
Working hard to help America's mentally ill was Dorothea's life's work. For this reason, people respected her deep care for those who had no voice in America.
Concluding Sentence:
Concluding Sentence:
"The facts that she was gathering should shake the stiffest heart, for the revelations of each new day were more horrifying than the last- the whole experience a nightmare. -(Women Who Change History, Henrietta Buckmaster, 1966, page 9)
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