Could you ever imagine being mentally ill and being placed in a prison with horrible conditions and sometimes even being abused? Well of course you'd never have to worry about this now thanks to Dorothea Dix, she worked for better conditions for years and years, and she never gave up, because of this she was successful and great. As William Shakespeare once said “Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”
Dorothea Lynde Dix was born April 4th 1802 in Hampton,Maine to Joseph Dix and Mary Bigelow. When she was born Thomas Jefferson was president, and there were only 16 states and Maine was still a part of Massachusetts. Her family was often described as abusive and nonexistent. Since the household was unstable she took charge of caring for her younger brothers. A lot of times when her parent's fighting got out of control she would leave and go to her grandmother's house, and eventually she ended up moving in with her grandmother Madam Dix. Living in the Dix mansion was a lot different than Dorothea was used to, Madam Dix was wealthy and wanted Dorothea to act as if she were wealthy too. Dorothea even had her very own dance instructor. Though she was a very lucky girl to receive these things she did not want them. At one time Dorothea was punished because she tried to give begger children her new clothes and food. At the age of 14 Dorothea was “handed” off to her aunt to learn how to be a “ lady”. As a teenager she was often asked what she wanted to do, she replied that she wanted to be a school teacher. In the fall of 1816 she taught 26 kids of the ages of six and eight. As a teacher Dorothea was a strict, tough disciplinarian. Dorothea's grandfather (Elijah Dix) was the founder of the two towns Dixmont and Dixfield.
At the age of 39 Dorothea became a nurse. Did you know that Dorothea Dix was nursing before modern nursing even existed. She was the Union's Superintendent of the Female Nurse's while the Civil War took place. Dorothea was appointed this June 10th 1861. Many people questioned whether women could serve as nurses because some were attractive, young, and unmarried. Because of this she made sure that most of the women she accepted into the Union's Female Nurses were plain looking, older than 30, and they had a strict dress code stating they could only wear brown/black skirts and no jewelry. Even with these enforcements over 3000 women joined. Dorothea did all of this free of charge, as a volunteer.
For years Dorothea Dix fought to help get the mentally ill and prisoners better conditions for the longest time the mentally ill and prisoners were both kept together in prisons, living in disgusting conditions like: lying in their very own filth, sometimes bare naked, even sexually or psychically abused. Dorothea got her idea to change conditions in 1834 by touring Europe and observing their prisons and asylums, with hope to improve the ones back in the U.S. She also visited a lot of correction centers where she would teach Sunday school to the inmates, this was said to have changed her life. By 1880 Dorothea had founded 32 of the 123 mental hospitals in the United States. Dorothea dedicated the rest of her life to improving the lives of the mentally ill and she also did more than any-other person from her generation towards the mentally ill.During the Civil War, Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton were both leaders of a national effort to organize a nursing corp to care for the war's sick and wounded. Dix was already once recognized for her work in improving the treatment of the insane, when she started recruiting women to serve as nurses in the Army Medical Bureau. Military traditionalists opposed her, but she prevailed. Dorothea established a lot standards in which they had to follow. Some recruits nicknamed her "Dragon Dix," but she was given a badge of honor and it indicated what it took to get far and succeed in creating the army's first professional nursing corps. She looked after the welfare of the nurses, who labored in an often brutal environment, and the soldiers who ministered, taking medical supplies from private sources when they were not available from the government.
Dorothea spoke, taught, and even just visited in many different places like asylums,prisons, and poorhouses. While in these places she would sometimes teach them life skills or even just Sunday school, anything she did they greatly appreciated. One of the great things about when Dorothea did this was she was very understanding to these people and she knew how they felt, because she had seen what their living conditions were like.
Some say greatness was thrust upon her because she joined the Army Medical Bureau. While apart of this she achieved quite a bit that she would've never had done if she hadn't had joined.This was thrust upon her because of the civil war breaking out if the civil war hadn't have been a true event she may have never had had this great chance to achieve greatness.
Others say that she achieved greatness for staring her very own school at only the age of 14! She even taught for years and years later.
In conclusion I think that Dorothea Lynde Dix was born great because even as a child she accomplished a lot of great things and she only achieved even more as she got older. Like when she was 14, or even when she was 54 and she became a nurse. She proves that you can accomplish a lot in one lifetime.
