Illinois Authors

Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Ill. : 1999.

"Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-87) was perhaps the most famous and admired woman in America for much of the nineteenth century. Beginning in the early 1840s, she launched a personal crusade to persuade the various states to provide humane care and effective treatment for the mentally ill by funding specialized hospitals for that purpose. The appalling conditions endured by most mentally ill inmates in prisons, jails, and poorhouses led her to take an active interest also in prison reform and in efforts to ameliorate poverty." "In 1846-47 Dix brought her crusade to Illinois. She presented two lengthy memorials to the legislature, the first describing conditions at the state penitentiary at Alton and the second discussing the sufferings of the insane and urging the establishment of a state hospital for their care. She also wrote a series of newspaper articles detailing conditions in the jails and poorhouses of many Illinois communities." "These long-forgotten documents, which appear in unabridged form in this book, contain a wealth of information on the living conditions of some of the most unfortunate inhabitants of Illinois."--BOOK JACKET.

Arno Press, New York : 1977, ©1970.

Yale University Press, New Haven : ©2006.

Telling the complex story of the debate and legal battle over federal regulation of the slave trade, this book explores a range of constitutional, social, and political issues that absorbed antebellum America.