Jane Addams Brought Change to America Without a Corporation Behind Her.
In today’s modern society, where money controls most of the things one does, it’s hard to imagine a way to change a large group of people’s life without having a substantial amount of money to start off with. This is why charities advocate so much for donations, pledges, and other means of gathering money. Jane Addams, while she did have family money, was one of the few people who was able to change a large number of lives without having a company or charity behind her supplying her with money. This is why Jane Addams’ achievements, specifically the opening of the Hull House, in the Progressive Era, demonstrated that one does not need to have a wide-spread well-funded …show more content…
She witnessed a match-girls strike which opened up her eyes to the working conditions and lack of worker’s rights of the lower class. She also met Frederic Harrison, a British jurist and historian. Harrison inspired her interest in Positivist philosophy, an idea that all knowledge is based on sensory information, formed through reason and logic (Scott). These experiences crystallized the idea of what she wanted to do with her life. Addams later wrote that after this trip she “gradually became convinced that it would be a good thing to rent a house in a part of the city where many primitive and actual needs are found” (Addams, 48). Addams then went on to buy a 43,560 ft^2, later known as the Hull House, in a poor neighborhood of Chicago, with her friend Ellen Gates Starr. The Hull House remained her home until her death in 1935. These early experiences, all before the age of 30, helped mold Jane Addams into the reformer she became. Addams didn’t have any financial backing or investors behind her when she opened the Hull House, and yet it still made a gigantic difference in a huge number of people’s lives.
Another result of these influences was the strength to allow her opinions and beliefs to be heard through her actions. Jane Addams didn’t let the fact that she was not a part of a company stop her from speaking out against injustice or discrimination. Addams’ supported immigration, and welcomed the cultural …show more content…
Although Addams was born in America into a middle class family, like most progressives, she did hope to improving housing and education, and better the lives of the poor and recent immigrated. Jane Addams did this by opening her home to the residents of Chicago. She wanted to make a difference in the world. The only way that she knew how to do this was to open her home to residents of Chicago. Before she opened the House, she was wondering if she should, later she wrote what helped her make her decision was that “Nothing can be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon and left one unexpended effort which might have saved the world”. She was truly a Progressive Reformer because she followed this dream to help people. She believed in helping people purely for humanitarian purposes (Young). She feared that if she never opened the Hull House she would live in regret for the rest of her life. Even if it was not easy for her to open the Hull House and support all these people who would work there or live there or rely on the House in anyway she did
In today’s modern society, where money controls most of the things one does, it’s hard to imagine a way to change a large group of people’s life without having a substantial amount of money to start off with. This is why charities advocate so much for donations, pledges, and other means of gathering money. Jane Addams, while she did have family money, was one of the few people who was able to change a large number of lives without having a company or charity behind her supplying her with money. This is why Jane Addams’ achievements, specifically the opening of the Hull House, in the Progressive Era, demonstrated that one does not need to have a wide-spread well-funded …show more content…
She witnessed a match-girls strike which opened up her eyes to the working conditions and lack of worker’s rights of the lower class. She also met Frederic Harrison, a British jurist and historian. Harrison inspired her interest in Positivist philosophy, an idea that all knowledge is based on sensory information, formed through reason and logic (Scott). These experiences crystallized the idea of what she wanted to do with her life. Addams later wrote that after this trip she “gradually became convinced that it would be a good thing to rent a house in a part of the city where many primitive and actual needs are found” (Addams, 48). Addams then went on to buy a 43,560 ft^2, later known as the Hull House, in a poor neighborhood of Chicago, with her friend Ellen Gates Starr. The Hull House remained her home until her death in 1935. These early experiences, all before the age of 30, helped mold Jane Addams into the reformer she became. Addams didn’t have any financial backing or investors behind her when she opened the Hull House, and yet it still made a gigantic difference in a huge number of people’s lives.
Another result of these influences was the strength to allow her opinions and beliefs to be heard through her actions. Jane Addams didn’t let the fact that she was not a part of a company stop her from speaking out against injustice or discrimination. Addams’ supported immigration, and welcomed the cultural …show more content…
Although Addams was born in America into a middle class family, like most progressives, she did hope to improving housing and education, and better the lives of the poor and recent immigrated. Jane Addams did this by opening her home to the residents of Chicago. She wanted to make a difference in the world. The only way that she knew how to do this was to open her home to residents of Chicago. Before she opened the House, she was wondering if she should, later she wrote what helped her make her decision was that “Nothing can be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon and left one unexpended effort which might have saved the world”. She was truly a Progressive Reformer because she followed this dream to help people. She believed in helping people purely for humanitarian purposes (Young). She feared that if she never opened the Hull House she would live in regret for the rest of her life. Even if it was not easy for her to open the Hull House and support all these people who would work there or live there or rely on the House in anyway she did