Dorothea Dix was born in Hampden, Maine in 1802; she was the eldest of three children. Her family was a mess time to time. She was always stitching and pasting tracts together because her father was a religious fanatic. She had always hated that chore. As time passed, Dorothea at age 12 ran away to Boston to live with her grandmother. When he turned 14 she started teaching schools for example Dix Mansion. Dix Mansion was a school for poor girls who couldn’t afford paying for school. During this time she also started writing textbooks; one of her most famous textbook ever published was known as Conversations on Common Things. In the year of 1841, Dorothea Dix’s life began changing. She started to teach Sunday school at East Cambridge Jail. …show more content…
I come to place Massachusetts the condition of the miserable, the desolate, the outcast. I come as the advocate of helpless, forgotten, insane men and women; of beings sunk to a condition rom which the unconcerned world would start with real horror.” This quote represented her belief and motivation. With her discoveries she found she documented everything and took it all to court. The fight was on. At last she won her case and was able to get the heat for patients at East Bridge Jail. From here this was only the beginning of her journey. She travels around the world documenting prisons and hospitals. She also took these to court and asks both congress houses to grant more than 12 million arc of land as public mental hospitals. Nevertheless both houses approve of this.
By 1861, Dorothea volunteered for the civil war and soon became known as “Dragon Dix”. She was called “Dragon Dix” because she always stern and firm. In addition to the civil war she became superintendent nurse; her responsibilities were recruiting nurses, managing supplies, setting up training programs, and setting the first aid kit. When it came to searching nurses and recruiting Dorothea had a stern rule. The nurse that is being recruited must be 30 year old and over. Dorothea was the first nurse to ever serve a high capacity in a federal appoint