Dorothea Dix

Summary[]

She was an American activist who spoke for the indigent insane.

Exact Definition[]

Who is she?

Was an American activist who spoke for the indigent insane, in which she grimly described the living conditions as well as the treatment of the insane by recording it in a book as she went to mental institutions around the US.

What did she do?

She ambitiously lobbied state legislatures and the US congress to address the issue.

Importance[]

Important because she succeeded by creating the first generation of American mental asylums but hit a stone wall in 1854 when Franklin Pierce vetoed it arguing the federal government should not commit itself to social welfare and instead was the responsibility of the states.

Additional Information[]

A mental hospital was named after her, surprisingly there was a controversy with how that hospital dealt with the insane.