Unit 3: A Woman’s Crusade: Dorothea Dix

Grades

• 9-10
• 11-12

Subjects

• History
• Political Science
• Social Studies

Overview of Lesson Plan

• Students examine the reform efforts of Dorothea Dix on behalf of people with mental retardation and mental illness in the poorhouses, prisons and asylums of Massachusetts. Dix's efforts resulted in the passage of legislation expanding the state insane asylum in Worcester. She later replicated this success in many other states. Students learn about the care of people with mental illness and mental retardation in the early 19th century and the reforms Dix advocated.

Standards

• 1. Construct reasoned judgments about specific cultural responses to persistent human issues.
  2. Apply ideas, theories, and modes of historical inquiry to analyze historical and contemporary developments, and to inform and evaluate actions concerning public policy issues.
  3. Apply concepts such as role, status, and social class in describing connections and interactions of individuals, groups, and institutions in society.
  4. Examine persistent issues involving the rights, roles, and status of the individual in relation to the general welfare.
  5. Explain the purpose of government and analyze how its powers are acquired, used, and justified.
  6. Identify, analyze, interpret, and evaluate sources and examples of citizens' rights and responsibilities.

Objectives

• 1. To examine public care for people with mental illness and mental retardation in the mid-1880s and the ways in which definitions of mental disability were established and implemented in practice.
  2. To assess the credibility of reports of abuse in public facilities.
  3. To understand the reform efforts of Dorothea Dix in the mid-1880s to shift responsibility for care of the indigent insane from local prisons and almshouses to professionally managed insane asylums at the state level.
  4. To identify how social reformers appealed to the conscience of the public and politicians during this period.
  

Questions to Consider

• 1. What were the conditions, as described by Dorothea Dix, under which people with mental disabilities lived during the first half of the 19th century? What explains those conditions? How did people define mental disability at this time?
• 2. What was the relationship between Dix's personal biography and her vision for changing how the insane of Massachusetts lived?
• 3. How did people respond to Dix's investigative reports?

Resources and Materials

• NOTE: Some of these links may lead to external web sites.
  1. Steve Taylor, "A Woman's Crusade: Dorothea Dix."
  2. Web Site on Historical Overview of Poorhouses in the Nineteenth-Century: http://www.poorhousestory.com/history.htm
  3. Dorothea Dix, Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature, 1843 (1-8, 23-24, 28, 49, 55-56, 76-81).
  4. Dorothea Dix, visual image.
  5. Lunatic Hospital, Worcester, Massachusetts, visual image.
  6. Response to Dix Memorial, February 9, 1843 (entire).
  7. Dix Accused of Slander, February 14, 1843 (entire).
  8. Dix Memorial Questioned, February 22, 1843 (entire).
  9. Charles Sumner Supports Dix (entire).

Activities and Procedures

• 1. Homework: students read the brief biography of Dix, the essay on moral treatment, and the Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts.
• 2. Class discussion: Teacher leads discussion of the Dix Memorial and answers the following questions:
• a. What group of people was the object of Dix's efforts? Who was responsible for their care? How were people with psychiatric disabilities being cared for, according to Dix? What kinds of words does Dix use to describe these people? How does she seem to define mental disabilities? What does she report?
• b. Who might have been angered by Dix's petition and why? How does she try to blunt potential criticism?
• c. How would the changes she seeks alter the status quo? In her mind, what criteria would define success?
• d. In paragraph 23, how does the woman's condition change? What does this suggest about what changes Dix advocates?
• e. Read paragraph 24 closely. What happens?
• f. What does the discussion in paragraph 28 suggest about popular views of people with psychiatric disabilities in the early nineteenth century?
• 3. Class reading and discussion: The class will then read the following documents and discuss the questions:
• a. Response to Dix Memorial, February 9, 1843: In paragraph 2, how does the newspaper describe Dix's account of the asylum and her motivations? What does the writer think of Dix's goals? How does this article represent the conditions in the Newburyport almshouse? Do you believe the interpretation presented here? Why or why not?
• b. Dix Accused of Slander, February 14, 1843: The authors apparently do not like Dorothea Dix. Why? What do they imply motivates Dix's efforts on behalf of the insane? What are the possible motivations of the authors of this letter?
• c. Dix Memorial Questioned, February 22, 1843: What does the author conclude about the truthfulness of Dix's Memorial? Why does he make this conclusion?
• d. Charles Sumner Supports Dix: How does Charles Sumner provide support for Dix? What is his evidence? Who was Charles Sumner? For what did he later become famous?
• 4. Group Discussion: Class breaks into two groups. A student in each group is assigned to be a recorder. Students are asked to discuss the following questions: Was Dix's account of conditions in the poorhouses credible? What makes an account like this credible and believable? One group takes the position: "Dix's account was believable and credible." The other group takes the position: "Dix's account was exaggerated and sensationalistic." Both groups identity arguments in support of the position. The class comes back together. Students have a teacher-led pro and con discussion of the credibility of Dix. As an alternative, students role play Dix, Sumner, and the authors of the critical responses to Dix and have a two versus two debate. (Note: factors that might influence the credibility of a report include first-hand experience, corroboration by others, the level of specific details in the report, and the motives of the author, including potential conflict of interest.)

Eras

• 1810-1865

Disability

• Developmental Disabilities
• Intellectual Disabilities
• Mental Illness
• Mental Retardation
• Psychiatric Disabilities

Topics

• Almshouse
• Disability Rights
• Exposés
• Government
• Law
• Media
• Mental Hospital
• Poorhouse
• Religion

Copyright

• ©Syracuse University, 2003.  All rights reserved.

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