Jane Addams was born on September
6, 1860. Her father was John Addams a
noted politician; he was the Senator in the state of Illinois. The family lived at the state Capitol in
Cedarville, Illinois. When Addams was
only 2 and1/2 years old, her mother had a serious accident while pregnant –
assisting in a neighbor’s childbirth – and she subsequently lost the baby she
was carrying and lost consciousness.
After five days, the mother died.
The young Addams never had the opportunity to see her mother during this
brief illness, for she was not permitted to enter her mother’s bedroom or
attend the funeral. She had four other
siblings. Her oldest sister, Martha,
died of typhoid at the age of 16. When
Addams was 20 years old, her father passed away.
Religion played a strong
role in Addams’ young life. Although the
family went to church every week – they were Presbyterian – her father refused
to have any particular religious affiliation.
He viewed himself as a “perfectionist” Christian. He believed that all deeds should be for the
benefit of others. As Addams was growing
up in this religious environment, she began to take issue with the idea of
predestination, for she felt that human actions had definitive moral
consequences. She was influenced by her
father’s intellect. She remembered one
of his admonitions to her, “Do not pretend to understand what you don’t
understand and you must always be honest with yourself inside, whatever
happens.” These words resonated with
the young woman. In addition, she
befriended Elias Hick, an influential Quaker and John Noyes – founder of the
utopian Oneida Community in the western region of New York State.
John Addams joined the
Republican Party in 1854. He believed
that the government had a meaningful and necessary role to play in protecting the
vulnerable and strengthening the economy.
He was against slavery and even took on the role of a “conductor” in the
Underground Railroad – a system set up to assist slaves in breaking the yolk of
slavery by secretly leaving the South.
Addams was 4 and 1/2 years old when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated;
her father was profoundly impacted by this tragic event. At the age of 12, she read about Robert Owen
and the community of New Harmony in Indiana.
Owen had a vision of a classless society whose members worked together
to meet everyone’s needs. At the age of
15, she read a long series of articles about John Brown – the radical
abolitionist. In her later years she
became familiar with the life of Lucy Stone –a well-known abolitionist and
suffragist - a woman she came to admire, deeply. All these myriad influences in her life,
convinced her to pursue a career in social reform.
As the young Addams
matured, she became enthralled with politics; this should be no surprise since
she grew up within that arena. She was
especially interested in the Presidential election of 1876 – the election was between
Samuel J. Tilden form New York and Rutherford B. Hayes from Ohio. Tilden won the popular vote but an electoral controversy
had to be resolved in the US House of Representatives where Hayes was declared
the winner.
As she was formulating
the direction her life would take, Addams decided to practice medicine among
the poor. In order to achieve this goal,
she was determined to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Although from today’s perspective that does
not seem like a formidable task, in that era less than .75% of women went
beyond high school. Unlike her three
sisters, Mary, Martha and Alice, Addams wanted to attend the recently opened
Smith College for women. Her father
refused to send her there; he cited her duty to her family. Addams was not happy with her situation;
she felt personally thwarted.
Regarding the spiritual
dimensions of her life, Addams identified herself as a deist – she did not believe
in the Son of God, but envisioned that God was everywhere. It is this kind of independent thinking and
resolute behavior that set Addams apart from her contemporaries. In addition, she drew inspiration from a
number of free thinking women. Among
them was a teacher, Caroline Potter, who believed that the study of history
taught about character, for it was character, she believed, that shaped
history. Potter and Addams were also
deeply influenced by Margaret Fuller’s book - Women in the Nineteenth Century published in 1845. A major thesis in this work was that the
division of society into rigidly defined gender spheres damaged both men and
women and that for human beings to thrive requires expanding the mind. Fuller went on to conclude that women must
discover their masculine aspect, energy, power and intellect as well as the
feminine side. Potter believed that her
mission was to groom women for what she believed was a new age.
All this input convinced
Addams to find an all-consuming passion in a role that would be
self-sacrificing. She was determined to
shatter the perception that women were, by nature, limited in their minds; she
refused to succumb to the notion of women’s inherent powerlessness. On account of her father’s obstinacy,
however, she postponed her desire to go on to higher education and received a
collegiate certificate in 1881 from Rockford Female Seminary when she was 20
years old. That same year, during the
summer, her father died from acute appendicitis. Each child inherited roughly
$50,000 (about $1.2 million in today’s economy). Following her father’s death, Addams and
family moved to Philadelphia. It was
there that she began to fulfill her dream of going to medical school. However, she suffered a long illness
(1881-1883) that severely limited her energy and she had to drop out of school.
Undaunted, Addams
decided to expand her horizons and traveled to Europe; the year was 1883. She traveled through Ireland, England,
Holland, Italy Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France. In London, considered to be biggest city in
the world with a population of 4.7 million people, she witnessed extreme and
devastating poverty. There, she visited
the Mile End Road Market – five miles long that on Saturdays at midnight sold
decaying meat, fruits and vegetables to the poor for pennies. Addams was deeply impacted by what she
saw. She became obsessed with the
suffering of the poor.
In 1885, she returned to
the US. Addams read Leo Tolstoy’s My Religion and was deeply taken by what
she read. She felt redeemed and wished
to emulate Tolstoy’s example and that of Adin Ballou regarding passive
non-resistance to evil. She was also
influenced by a book entitled, The Duties
of Man by the Italian revolutionary, Giuseppe Mazzini. Accordingly, Addams came to believe that
serving humanity was a higher calling than serving one’ country or one’s family
and that to attain true democracy a person should interact closely with as many
individuals as possible. Another writer
that had a marked influence on her thinking was John Stuart Mill, especially
his book entitled, The Subjugation of
Women (1869), in which the author argued that women should have complete
latitude in choosing their work. Addams
ultimately converted to Christianity, joining the Cedarville Presbyterian
Church.
While in London, Addams
had the opportunity to visit Toynbee Hall, a so-called settlement house. It was located in London’s East End. It was established by the Anglican Clergyman,
Samuel Barnett. Fifteen young graduates
from Oxford University moved there, living in an exceedingly poor
neighborhood. The purpose of this
arrangement was to serve the poor. The
model upon which this was based was innovative in that those who were serving
the indigent did so on an equal social footing.
Addams was so enamored of this idea that together with her good friend,
Ellen Gates Starr started a settlement house in Chicago; it came to be called
Hull House.
Each day Hull House
served the under-privileged including mothers leaving their children in its
nursery and the young and the elderly attending classes and social clubs. The policy of Hull House, under Addams’
guidance, was to serve all of those seeking assistance. Addams describes it in the following terms,
“The memory of the first years at Hull House is more or less blurred with
fatigue, for we could of course become accustomed only gradually to the
unending activity and to the confusion of a house constantly filing a refilling
with groups of people.” Hull House
endured many setbacks but had many successes and helped draw attention to the
plight of the poor. It endured for
twenty years under her aegis. The work
of Hull House exposed many deficiencies in public policy in regards to child
labor and the working conditions of the poor.
These revelations helped in the overall reform effort and, ultimately,
the State of Illinois remedied many of these situations with appropriate legislation.
Addams, due in large
part to her eloquence as a public speaker and sharp uncompromising intellect,
became a spokeswoman and ally in regards to the issues of peace, social justice
and women’s suffrage. She was so
influential that she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. Addams was hospitalized that same year and
was unable to receive her prize and give an acceptance speech. In its stead, the following excerpt is from
the presentation speech given by Halvdan Koht, a member of the Nobel Committee
on December 10, 1931.
“It must be said,
however, that the United States is not the power for peace in the world that we
should have wished her to be. She has sometimes let herself drift into the
imperialism which is the natural outcome of industrial capitalism in our age.
In many ways she is typical of the wildest form of capitalist society, and this
has inevitably left its mark on American politics.
“But America has at the
same time fostered some of the most spirited idealism on earth. It may be that
this idealism derives its vigor from the squalor and evil produced by social
conditions, in other words from the contrasts within itself. It is certainly an
undeniable fact, which must strike anyone who knows the country that the
American nation has an instinctive and profound faith in what the philosophers
of 100 or 150 years ago used to call human perfectibility, the capacity to
become more and more perfect. It is a faith which has provided the foundation
for some of our greatest religions and one which has inspired much of the best
work for progress. It was proclaimed by Jesus Christ; it inspired the work of
men like Emerson and Wergeland1. To the American mind nothing is impossible.
This attitude applies not only to science and technology but to social forms
and conditions as well. To an American an ideal is not just a beautiful mirage
but a practical reality the implementation of which is every man's duty.
American social idealism expresses itself as a burning desire to devote work
and life to the construction of a more equitable society, in which men will
show each other greater consideration in their mutual relations, will provide
stronger protection to the weak, and will offer greater opportunities for the
beneficent forces of progress.
“Two of the finest
representatives of this American idealism are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
today. Both have worked assiduously and for many years to revive the ideal of
peace and to rekindle the spirit of peace in their own nation and in the whole
of mankind.
“In honoring Jane
Addams, we also pay tribute to the work which women can do for peace and
fraternity among nations. The old concept implied that woman was the source of
nearly all sin and strife on earth. Popular tradition and poetry would also
have it that women were frequently the cause of the wars waged by kings and
nations. I know of only one legend to the contrary, the story of the Sabine
women who threw themselves between their Roman fathers and brothers and their
Sabine husbands.
“In modern times the
poets, starting with Goethe, Ibsen, and Bjørnson 2, have seen women in a
different light; in their eyes women reflect the highest and purest moral
standards of society. And no man has placed greater faith in the work of women
for the cause of peace than did Bjørnson. It is this new position acquired by
women in the society of our time, their new independence in relation to men,
that gave us reason to anticipate that they would constitute a new force in the
work for peace. Bjørnson seemed to see women as bringing «the spirit of calm to
the tumult of battle», with the prayer that love should prevail over the
passion to kill, and to believe that when women obtained power in society and
in the state, the very spirit of war must die.
“We must nevertheless
acknowledge that women have not altogether fulfilled the hopes we have placed in
them. They have allowed too much scope to the old morality of men, the morality
of war. In practical politics we have seen too little of that love, that warm
maternal feeling which renders murder and war so hateful to every woman. But
fortunately we have seen something of this feminine will which revolts against
war. Whenever women have organized, they have always included the cause of
peace in their program. And Jane Addams combines all the best feminine
qualities which will help us to develop peace on earth.
“Twice in my life, once
more than twenty years ago and now again this year, I have had the pleasure of
visiting the institution where she has been carrying on her lifework. In the
poorest districts of Chicago, among Polish, Italian, Mexican, and other
immigrants, she has established and maintained the vast social organization
centered in Hull-House3. Here young and old alike, in fact all who ask, receive
a helping hand whether they wish to educate themselves or to find work. When
you meet Miss Addams here - be it in meeting room, workroom, or dining room -
you immediately become poignantly aware that she has built a home and in it is
a mother to one and all. She is not one to talk much, but her quiet,
greathearted personality inspires confidence and creates an atmosphere of
goodwill which instinctively brings out the best in everyone.
“From this social work,
often carried on among people of different nationalities, it was for her only a
natural step to the cause of peace. She has now been its faithful spokesman for
nearly a quarter of a century. Little by little, through no attempt to draw
attention by her work but simply through the patient self-sacrifice and quiet
ardor which she devoted to it, she won an eminent place in the love and esteem
of her people. She became the leading woman in the nation, one might almost say
its leading citizen. Consequently, the fact that she took a stand for the ideal
of peace was of special significance; since millions of men and women looked up
to her, she could give a new strength to that ideal among the American people.”
Addams died in 1935 and
her funeral was held in Hull House, a fitting location. She was a remarkable woman whose life
journey is a testimonial to courage, persistence, intellect and an unflinching
dedication to a life of service.
