Breaking the Chains: The Crusade of Dorothea Lynde Dix

by Penny Colman

Dorothea Dix was almost forty years old when she discovered that people, especially poor people, with mental illness were "confined in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience." Outraged by this knowledge, Dix led a forty-year crusade for the humane treatment of people with mental illness. Year after year, she traveled thousands of miles by stagecoach, boats, horseback, and railroad to investigate and expose the horrendous conditions. She lobbied legislators, governors, and presidents to provide treatment and facilities for people with mental illness. She took her crusade to Scotland, Italy, and Russia. During the Civil War, she served as the Superintendent of the Female Nurses of the Army, as such she had more authority and power than any other woman had had in the military prior to and during the Civil War. After the war, she resumed her crusade. When Dorothea Dix died in 1887, people around the world honored her. Proclamations, testimonials, and tributes were spoken and printed from the United States to Japan to England. A prominent American doctor wrote, "Thus had died and been laid to rest the most useful and distinguished woman America has yet produced."

Genres: Biography, History

146 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2007

About the author

Penny Colman is the author of award-winning biographies and social histories. Her intriguing topics range from Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II to Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts: A History of Burial. A popular speaker, Penny has appeared on television and radio, including National Public Radio, and on Book TV, C-Span2.
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She has been honored by the New Jersey State Legislature for her books and public appearances that have “contributed to the advancement of women.” The New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs presented her with the New Jersey Women of Achievement Award.

A graduate of The University of Michigan and The Johns Hopkins University, Penny has taught nonfiction literature and creative writing at various colleges and universities, including Teachers College, Columbia University and Queens College, The City University of New York, where she was a Distinguished Lecturer.

Reviews

[Amelia in PDX · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was interested in this book at first because I am related to her.. She died 3 days before my grandmother's 2nd birthday.

Reading how much she accomplished in her life time, in an era where women really didn't have any rights - didn't even have the vote, & the folks she knew is really something else. And she was never married, wrote a couple of books & started 3 schools before she was 30 years old.

The way she got things done for the mentally ill, BEFORE the civil war, to realize most of her work in that direction has fallen by the wayside.... There are still a few (or were a few) of the hospitals that she opened - still open at the time this book was written & published.

I hope that other folks will enjoy this book as much as I did.

[Gail B. Boettcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing woman

Having gone into nursing in the earl y 60's and learned about Dorthea Dix I was excited to read this book and learn what drove her to be a crusader for mental health. I was amazed when I spoke to my daughter recently who's also an RN and she had never heard of her . we all know of Florence Nightingale and all she did for nursing, and it's a shame that we don't teach more about Doctors Lynde Dix

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story. I learned a smattering about Dorothea Dix in nursing school but nothing in great detail. This strong-willed, opinionated women had a lot of gutsy attitude and the desire to do something good. She traveled all over the country visiting mental institutions (insane asylums) and prisons trying to upgrade the horrid conditions in all of them. She accomplished a lot. Her descriptions can be graphic.

[allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

what an amazing woman, everything she did for society and how she continuously fought without question or doubt is seriously so admirable