Ellis Island Essay, Research Paper

You might wonder why someone would go through all the trouble to write an essay

on immigration. (besides the fact this is an assignment in history) Much of what

we say, eat, and even do is connected to something that an immigrant brought to

this country years ago. Many of the dishes that we as Americans enjoy, such as

pastas, burritos, or even some types of sausages were brought here by Italians,

Mexicans, and Germans. Also much of our everyday language comes from other

languages. This is why immigration is so interesting to me. My main interest in

immigration takes place at a place called Ellis Island. Ellis Island is a small

island in Upper New York Bay, although in New Jersey waters. It is under the

political jurisdiction of New York. From 1892 to 1954 Ellis Island was the

Headquarters of an immigration and naturalization district of the United States.

The early Dutch colonists called the island Oyster Island originally; it was

later known as Gibbet Island, after a private was hanged there in 1765. Samuel

Ellis bought the island in the 18th century and gave it his name. From Ellis

Island it passed to New York State; it was bought from the state by the federal

government in 1808. In 1892, when Castle Garden, the immigration station at the

Battery in lower Manhattan, could no longer handle the flow of immigrants, the

reception headquarters was transferred to Ellis Island. At Ellis Island

immigrants were examined and either admitted or deported. At the height of

it?s activity from 1900 to 1914 Ellis Island station could process 1 million

people a year. Around 1890to 1920 mostly Europeans arrived in Ellis Island.

Whereas at Angel Island in San Francisco Asians were arriving on boats. The

ever-growing numbers taxed the faculty with long lines and overcrowding. Ships

dropped anchors outside the Narrows, where Quarantine officers would come aboard

to check for signs of epidemic diseases. If a ship was free of disease, doctors

would then examine the first and second class passengers, most of whom were

given permission to land as soon as the ship docked. Steerage-class passengers

were ferried to Ellis Island for inspection. ?We were put on a barge, jammed

in so tight that I couldn?t turn around, there were so many of us, you see,

and the stench was terrible. And when we got to Ellis Island, they put the

gangplank down, and there was a man at the foot, and her was shouting, at the

top of his lungs, ?Put your luggage here. Men this way. Women and children

this way.? Dad looked at us and said, ?we?ll meet you back here at this

mound of luggage and hope we find it again and see you later.? This quote was

by a European immigrant in 1920 by the name of Eleanor Kenderdine Lenhart.

Sometimes new arrivals had to wait aboard their ships for days before being

transferred to Ellis Island. Once there, they were often confined to the

overcrowded barges for hours without food or water, waiting for their turn to

disembark for inspection. The barges chartered by the steamship lines lacked

adequate toilets and lifesaving equipment, they were freezing cold in winter and

unbearably hot in the summer. When disembarking at Ellis Island, some immigrants

were so encumbered with large bundles that they kept their health certificates

handy by clenching then between their teeth. Their assortment of baggage

contained what must have been their most prized but portable belongings:

clothing, feather beds, dinnerware, as well as photographs, family prayer books

and other mementoes of the homeland. The immigrants were all inspected as they

arrived to Ellis Island in different ways. They inspected there mentally and

medically. The medical inspection began as soon as the immigrants ascended the

stairs to the Registry Room. Doctors stationed at the top of the stairs watched

carefully for shortness of breath or signs of heart trouble as the immigrants

climbed up the steps hefting their baggage. U.S. Public Health Service Doctors

sometimes only had six seconds to scan each immigrant during the line

inspection. If a doctor found any indication of diseases, he marked the shoulder

or lapel of the immigrant?s clothing with chalk: ?L? for lameness, ?E?

for eyes, for example. Marked immigrants, some of them whom had received several

of these mystifying letters, were removed from the inspection line and led to

special examination rooms. There a doctor would check them for the ailment

indicated by the chalk mark and give them a quick overall physical. Many had to

be sent to the hospital for observation and care. Patients who recovered were

usually aloud to land. Others, whose ailments were incurable or disabling, were

sent back to their ports of origin. As far as the mental inspection, nine out of

one hundred immigrants were marked with an ?X? by the U.S. Public Health

Service during the line inspection and were sent to mental examination rooms for

further questioning. During the primary examination, doctors first asked the

immigrants to answer a few questions about themselves, and then to solve simple

arithmetic problem, or count backward from 20 to 1, or complete a puzzle. Out of

the nine immigrants held for this session, perhaps one or two would be detained

for a secondary session of more extensive testing.

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An immigrant from 1917 says, ? They asked us questions like ?How much is

two and one? How much is two and two?? They even asked one girl how she washed

stairs, from the top to the bottom?? She said, ? I don?t go to America to

wash stairs.? Coming to America, published by Dell Publishing Co. Inc. New

York, New York Author, Gladys Nadler Rips, Copyright, 1981 The Westward Journey,

Mankota MN, Creative Education Inc. Kristain Hvidt, Copyright, 1976 Immigration:

New Americas, Old Question, Facts on File, New York, New York Edited by Melinda

Maidens, Copyright, 1981