Mrs. Kniesely
English 1 – 4th period
29 September 2013
Dix Hill
Original Source/Context: Dorothea Dix was an advocate for improvements in the treatment of patients suffering from mental and emotional disorders and was the most visible humanitarian reformer of the 19th century. In March, 1841 a student was frustrated with his teaching efforts for a class of women incarcerated in the East Cambridge jail. Dix decided to teach the class herself. What she saw shocked her and changed her life. The jail didn’t have heat. Those incarcerated all occupied the same quarters, including hardened criminals, feeble-minded children and the mentally ill. Her experiences in the jail made her wonder about other jails around the state. She discovered that the mentally ill were commonly housed with felons. She decided to create a mission to reform the jails and provide decent accommodations for those who suffered from mental illnesses. Dorothea Dix soon was visiting jails all over the state of Massachusetts to complete one of the earliest social research projects in the United States. She found mentally ill people chained in cellars and living in terrible conditions. She founded many hospitals for the mentally ill, commonly called Dix Hill.
Source Citation:
Viney, Wayne. "Dorothea Dix." UUA Server for Other Organizations' Web Sites. Unitarian Universalist History and Heritage Society, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.
Quote From a Secondary Source: “…to help pass the time, we took up lying. From the beginning Doodle was a terrible liar and he got me in the habit. Had anyone stopped to listen to us, we would have been sent off to Dix Hill. My lies were scary, involved, and usually pointless, but Doodle’s were twice as crazy. People in his stories all had wings and flew wherever they wanted to go.” (Hurst 6)
Source Citation:
Hurst, James. “The Scarlet Ibis.” Literature Texas Language and Literacy.Grade 9. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2011. 384-395. Print.