Laura Jane Addams was born on September 6th of 1860 and died on May 21st of 1935. Although her first name is Laura she preferred to go by Jane. Her family consisted of 9 children with her being the 8th child and sadly only 5 of them survived their early childhood. Addams grew up in Cedarville, Illinois and her upbringing favored considering that her father was known to be a political leader and a miller who was actually close friends with Abraham Lincoln. Addams mainly had her father while she grew up due to her mother dying to childbirth when she was only two years old. The fact that her father was well known could have definitely worked to her advantage considering she had more opportunities compared to other women during this time period.
Jane Addams ended up getting her education at Rockford Female Seminary and graduated in 1881. One of her accomplishments during school was becoming the valedictorian in her class of 17 students. Using her knowledge to take her far she then began to study medicine for 6 years but had to put that dream to rest because of her health issues. Addams endured a spinal difficulty so bad that she had to undergo surgery to decrease the pain. Luckily, she was given a bachelor’s degree a year after the school she graduated from transformed into Rockford College of Women. Although her health was not the strongest that did not stop her from creating a bright future for herself.
After the setback from medical school she decided to go to Europe to expand her education but then switched her focus to writing and reading which she gained a passion for. She dived into these two subjects for 2 years before she knew that she wanted to pursue a career in this field. 27 years had past before she decided to return to Europe but this time was unique because she decided to bring a friend named Ellen Starr. During her visit she ended up viewing a settlement house named Toynbee Hall. A settlement house had educational classes, different types of useful activities to help out a community. This is what inspired Jane Addams to embark on her next journey.
Her next chapter consisted of having an idea to create her own type of settlement house in a city in need. The city she picked was Chicago. She noticed the massive amount of poverty within Europe so she picked a place that was similar in ways that she knew a settlement house would be able to benefit the community. In 1889, Addams and Starr decided on a house that they named “Hull House” within Chicago to begin the transformation in the city. Their main goal(s) from carrying this out was to supply a place within the community that was about to give people the mechanisms they needed in their daily life. Second, presenting a place where people could gain their education especially if people had trouble with receiving one during this time period. Lastly, to modify the negative components that made up the city.
Jane Addams was a pacifist and a social activist whose main goal was surely peace because throughout her life she put time and effort in recreating a corrupt city that clearly was not given the same tools that she was while growing up. She was very blessed to be able to receive an education and be able to travel the world and the fact that she dedicated her life to helping others receive the same tools she did if not more than what was provided to her shows that she wanted the best for people who were not privileged. She continued to use her brave voice to make speeches stressing the importance of the necessities the neighborhood should be given with questioning. She also successfully tried to rally up people like herself (privileged women) and explained to them the reasoning behind her actions and beliefs which helped her raise money for Hull House.
Due to all of Jane Addams hard work Hull House made a complete transformation within the two years of its opening. The way Hull House was set up there was Kindergarten classes in the morning, a variety of group activities available for teens during the afternoon and for adults there was night school and other groups that they could participate in. Since Hull House continued to expand during its peak they started to gain institutions such as an art gallery, a public kitchen, coffee house, swimming pool, library, museum, music school, drama club and so much more. Hull House was turning into so many facilities in one which made it very easily to access so many different types of places in this community. It was extremely beneficial to have Hull House in the area that it was in. Addams made no mistake choosing this area to start Hull House in and she definitely succeeded in her goals by making Hull House bigger and greater than what she intended.
Based on her expanding her purpose she used that to continue to spread justice and knowledge on even bigger concepts such as WWI. In 1905 she was on the Chicago board of education and she was made chairman of the school management committee which gave her a better say in issues and goals that could of been fixed and reached. She also became the 1st women to be the president of Charities and Corrections. Jane Addams voiced her opinion frequently on women in society and spoke on the idea of women speaking up for themselves more often about how they felt about issues in society and legislation. She also expressed that they as a whole should be given the right to vote. One of Jane Addams main goals which made her a pacifist was her idea of getting rid of war all together. To support this she would deny any chance to follow through with war like situations and she would also follow through with actions that would decrease the likelihood of war occurring. In 1906 she created a book called Newer Ideals of Peace which she also provided a course on at University of Wisconsin. In 1913 she spoke for peace at a ceremony in which she faithfully spoke against America following through with WWI.
Not everyone enjoyed her being open about disagreeing with WWI which got her expelled from Daughters of the American Revolution. This did not stop her legacy being so vivid during her life span. She then worked with Herbert Hoover on giving back to children from enemy nations by giving them food and relief from WWI. She also wrote a book about this experience called Peace and Bread in Time for War in 1922. Jane Addams still continued to deal with health setbacks and suffered from a heart attack in 1926 and thankfully she survived it. An interesting fact about her is that the same day she won her Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 she was admitted into the hospital. She was also the first American Woman to receive this type of award. Jane Addams ended up losing her life to cancer in 1935 but her legacy still exists while she continues to motivation people (women especially) like myself today.
What inspired me about Jane Addams was her not using her disabilities to play victim. Instead she was a fighter and dealt with her problems like it was nothing. The fact that she was battling sickness throughout her whole life and had episodes from the beginning that could of easily stopped her she still didn’t let it bring her down. I admire this type of behavior because back then woman in general were not given the same respect as men were and she made it her mission to become somebody. She grew up living such a lavish life and she dedicated her life to helping those who actually needed it. It takes a woman with true strength built inside of her to help those who didn’t grow up as privileged as herself and to keep battling illnesses after illnesses until the day she died. That’s a true pacifist because if someone truly wants something for themselves or others they stop at nothing to grasp it and Jane Addams is a prime example of that.
Works Cited
Michals, Debras. “Jane Addams.” National Women’s History Museum, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/jane-addams.
“The Nobel Peace Prize 1931.” Nobelprize.org, The Nobel Prize, www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1931/addams/biographical/.