Dorothea Dix
From Wiki 5A
Dorothea was the only girl in her family. She also had two younger brothers. When she went to Washington D.C. at the age 14, she taught at Worchester School in 1821. She opened a young ladies’ school in Boston, Massachusetts. Dorothea was an American social reformer who campaigned for better conditions and treatments for prisoners and the mentally ill. Dorothea was horrified by the conditions there. Dorothea went to the house of corrections. In 1881, Dorothea retired when she went to live in New Jersey. She was also a pioneer. She wrote a famous letter to the state then regarding the mentally ill. Dorothea Dix visited the East Cambridge Massachusetts jail. She was a superintendent during the Civil War. Dorothea also wrote many children books. She eventually visited every state in the Rocky Mountains. She spent over a year touring every jail and house of corrections.
