American ImmigrationEllis Island’s Story

Power point created by Robert MartinezPrimary source information: Ellis Island by Pamela Reeves

Ellis Island New York City, NY

Four out of ten Americans trace their heritage via

Ellis Island. Like the Statue of Liberty, it

has been a powerfully evocative

symbol to generations of

immigrants.

Mr. Martinez’s Grandmother:Genevieve Menager Garza

My grandmother, third from the left,

immigrated to the United States from

France. My grandmother like

many others passed through Ellis Island.

The Menager Siblings from France

Class System

Ellis Island showcased some of the best aspects of the United States,

but also some of the worst. Its very existence was

testimony to a class system.

1st Class TicketImmigrants who could

afford a first- or second-class ticket

aboard the big ocean liners from

Europe were briefly inspected aboard

ship and allowed, to pass directly into the United States.

Describing the lower decks, “Some…had sold their clothes to raise the passage-money, and had hardly rags to cover them; others had no food and lived upon the charity of the rest; and one man…had had no sustenance but the bones and scraps of fat he took from the plates used in the after-cabin dinner, when they were put out to be washed.”

– Charles Dickens, 1842.

Steerage PassengersOnly the poor were

required to undergo an inspection at Ellis

Island, and the poor comprised, by far, the

majority of immigrants. These steerage

passengers-so called because they traveled in the lowest levels of

the ship – did not always receive a warm

welcome.

Treatment of the immigrants on Ellis Island varied over the years from tolerant to

scandalous, and even the most honest and well-meaning administrators had

trouble getting rid of the men of prey who tried to cheat the newcomers out their few

possessions or their often meager life savings.

Indeed, the immigrants were easy marks, having just completed an

uncomfortable or even wretched journey across the ocean, stepping onto shore in a country where they knew neither the language nor the

money exchange-rates.

The island also drew legions of kindhearted missionaries and ethnic-aid societies, whose members guided their countrymen through the entry process, past the lurking pitfalls,

and safely into the new land. The volunteers helped immigrants locate friends and get

jobs.

Some immigrants were forced to leave their homes because of war, famine, political ,

economic or religious persecution. Some left unhappy family situations and struck out on their own. Most were drawn by the promise of a better life, and a country where plentiful

and hard work led to prosperity.

In 1845, Ireland was hit with a famine stemming from crop failures of the

main peasant food- potatoes. Over the next decade, 1.5 million Irish citizens

set out for the United States.

Irish Laundry Girls

These Russian orphans lost their mothers due to political persecution in their homeland.

Ireland was not alone in suffering from lack of food- in 1847, a shortage of

bread and potatoes caused rioting in Germany.

Xenophobia: the fear of strangers or foreigners.

Between 1880 and 1900, nine million immigrants entered the country, the

largest number of new arrivals in any 20 year period. This alarmed many

Americans, in part because of a shift in the nationality of the immigrants.

The earliest settlers in the U.S. were from northern and western Europe, primarily

England, Ireland, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. When people from

southern and eastern Europe began to predominate (Italy, Russia, Poland, Spain,

Greece, Eastern Europe, and Austria-Hungary), Americans began to protest. In

1924, a stiff immigration-restriction law was imposed.

A Jewish peddler on the streetsof New York City.

On the West Coast, there had been race riots against the Chinese, who had comprised 17

% of the population and worked for low wages for railroad builders. Feelings ran so

strong that Congress banned Chinese immigrants from entering the United States (Chinese Exclusion Act). The immigration

station in San Francisco is located on Angel Island.

Industrialization:Major Motive

Ellis island opened in 1892 in the midst of an industrialization in the United States that drew

eager workers from dozens of foreign

nations; at its height in 1907, more than one million people came through its doors.

At the turn of the 20th century, America was undergoing a major transformation from a rural

to an urban society. This change was accompanied by huge growth in iron, steel,

mining, and lumber industries and such major developments as the telephone, the automobile,

electric light, and the phonograph.

Thomas Edison and his phonograph.

Alexander Graham Belland his telephone.

Henry Ford and his Model T automobile.

The offshoots of industries required millions of laborers and provided the

economic draw for those in less prosperous European nations.

Despite some early mutual distrust, many of the immigrants joined the newly developed American labor unions,

eventually becoming a major force in the movement.

Their struggle for such rights for the 8 hour day led to bloody strikes and violent confrontations. In 1886

alone, there were nearly 1,600 strikes involving 600,000 workers, one them culminating in Chicago’s infamous Haymarket Riot, in which 8 policemen were

killed and more than sixty people wounded. Many Americans would blame the unions and their immigrant members for causing the troubles.

At the same time as the labor classes, there was an outcry against the abuses at New York City’s Castle Garden, which had opened in 1855 as the nation’s

first receiving-station for immigrants. During its 35 years of operation, Castle Garden handled 9 million

immigrants, including labor champion Samuel Gompers, the 1st president of the AFL-CIO.

Samuel Gompers, the 1st president of the American Federation of Labor.

Ellis Island opens it doors to immigrants on New Year’s Day, 1882. The federal

government opens the new station because of disrepair and corruption of the Castle Garden Immigration center. Prior to the

federal government, immigration in New York City was handled by state officials.

Ellis Island ferry

Ellis Island

The wharves were large enough to receive immigrants from 2 ships

simultaneously. Once ashore, they went straight into a giant hall and a

maze of aisles where they waited their turn to talk with a registry clerk, and a

medical inspection.

After passing the medical examination, immigrants waited anxiously inthe Registry room to be summoned to an inspector’s desk for the legal

inspection.

Primary Evidence: Inspection Card

The inspection card, dating from 1911, gives the name of the ship which the immigrant traveled

to America, plus the immigrant’s name, point of departure, and last residence.

Medical Inspections

A mother and her children wait formedical examination. At the far left of the photograph, a doctorcan be seen checking a child’s

eyes for signs of trachoma.

A doctor examines a woman who bearsa chalk mark on her dress, courtesy of

a sharp-eyed inspector.

Those who failed to pass the initial inspection were “placed in a wire-screened enclosure,”

due to improper papers, or failed health screenings. Sometimes paperwork could be

corrected. Sometimes immigrants were placed in quarantine. Many times, these immigrants were just sent back home. Sometimes family members would be

separated.

The Ellis Island hospital and contagiousWards contained beds for 700 patients.

Deportation:Expulsion of someone from a country.

Immigrants who failed inspection were often sent home. Pictured are immigrants who

are awaiting deportation in an

outdoor area of Ellis Island.

Having passed all inspections, immigrants were permitted to send

telegrams notifying relatives of their safe arrival to

America.

The rest were separated into groups, depending on whether they planned to

stay in New York or were taken to another destination.

Immigrants who were to travel to their final destinations by

railroad had their railway ticketspinned to their lapels.

At the Railroad ticket office, newcomers happy to have passedinspections bought tickets to travel on from Ellis Island.

Restrictions on ImmigrationAs ever growing numbers

of immigrants looked hopefully toward America and the

promise of a new life, Americans themselves were reluctant to allow

immigration to continue unrestricted. Congress

would implement numerous restrictions and quotas on future

immigration.

After World War I, immigration in the United States dwindles due to Congressional

Quotas. During World War II, Ellis Island will be used as a detention center for enemy

aliens (Germans, Italians, Japanese, Hungarians, Romanians, and Bulgarians.)

1951

The once packed Registry room was quiet, its vastspaces empty save for a few immigrant families.

Nativism:opposition to immigration.

Its decline began shortly after World War I, when

Congress imposed severe restrictions on immigration, reflecting

the attitudes of a society grown weary of foreigners. After 1924,

immigration slowed to a trickle and Ellis Island fell into disuse. It was

closed in 1954.

Ellis Island is now a restored National Park and Museum

Approximately 17 million immigrants passed through the gates of Ellis Island.

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