Chapter 14, Section 3

Dorothea Dix: Helping the Helpless Born on the Main frontier in 1802 Lived with her grandmother and went to school in Boston to become a teacher By 14 she opened her own grade school

Dorothea Dix: Helping the Helpless Few years later she opened a larger school free for poor children Read wrote and studied from 4am to well after midnight She began writing her own books which were then used by teachers throughout the nation

Dorothea Dix: Helping the Helpless A new mission Dix got a message from a young Harvard University student who had been asked to set a Sunday school for young women in the Cambridge jail, near Boston

Dix took on the job herself There she found women jailed for theft, drunkenness, and for being mentally ill The jail locked the mentally ill in small dark cells at the rear of the jail There was no heat

A shocking report During the next 18 months Dix visited every jail and hospital in Massachusetts She gave a detailed report to state legislatures She then gave a report to the newspapers to persuade legislatures to raise taxes to build a new mental hospital The legislatures voted for the hospital

A shocking report Dix inspected jails and poorhouses in Vermont, Connecticut, and New York Her reports convinced legislatures to treat the mentally ill as patients not prisoners

A shocking report Dix and others called for changes in the prison system One or two prisoners per cell End to cruel punishments Minot crimes received shorter sentences Stop treating debtors as criminals

Educating a Free People Before 1820 few American children attended school Public schools were rare Existing schools were run down Teachers were poorly trained and ill paid Students of all ages crowded into one room

New public schools New York State led the way in reforming education 1820 state ordered every town to build a grade school

New public schools Horace Mann Massachusetts, led the fight for better schools Head of the state education board 12 years he hounded legislatures to provide more money for education

New public schools Massachusetts built new schools, extended the school year and gave teachers higher pay Opened three colleges to train teachers

New public schools By 1850 most northern states had set up free tax supported elementary schools Southern schools improved more slowly Schools ended in the eighth grade

Education for African Americans Free African Americans had little chance for attending school A few cities set up separate schools for African Americans Received less money

Special schools 1817 Thomas Gallaudet set up a school for people who are deaf in Hartford, Connecticut Samuel Gridley Howe invented a way to print books with raised letters.

Battling Demon Rum 1800s alcohol abuse was widespread Men, women, and sometimes even children drank heavily Reformers linked abuse of alcohol to crime the breakup of families, and mental illness

Battling Demon Rum Temperance movement: campaign against drinking 1850s Maine banned the sale of alcohol Eight other stats soon passed “Main laws” Most states later repealed the laws until temperance crusaders gained new strength in the late 1800s.