Ellis Island, History and Memory

Joe Tells His Family's Story

2010-11-11T15:31:00.013-05:00

What follows is a brief narrative of how my mother and two of her siblings were finally able to join their father in Brooklyn.

The first photo was taken in 1921 in Proskurov, Ukraine and shows my 30-year-old father Aaron Weitzman, my 19-year-old mother Miriam, and my 3-month-old brother William, just before they departed for the United States.

They were denied entry at Ellis Island because of the quota for Russians and spent the next two years in Havana before gaining entry through Tampa, Florida in 1923.

The second photo was taken in 1925 in Brooklyn with my parents, my brother William, then five years old, and their 2-year-old daughter Sarah, who was born in Brooklyn shortly after my parents arrived in the U.S.

The third photo is a montage of three photos taken between 1908 and 1910 in Proskurov, Ukraine, before my maternal grandfather, Sam Beitch, departed for the U.S. It shows my grandfather and grandmother, Sarah, with their five surviving children (they had 6). My mother is front row right. Her older sister Jennie (back row left) and younger brother Abraham (front row left) made it to the U.S.

In 1914, he sent money back to his family so that they could join him, but World War One started before they could leave.

In 1921 when the family was departing for the U.S., the oldest child Jennie was married and left separately with her husband and child. My mother Miriam was married and left separately with her husband and child.

My grandmother left with her youngest child Abraham who was 16 and made it to the ship in Bremerhaven, Germany, but was not allowed to board because she hadn’t recovered from her recent illness. She told the boy to get on the ship and she would join him soon. She died three months later and is buried in a Jewish cemetery in Bremen.

My grandfather last saw his son when the boy was 6 and barely recognized him at 16 when he met him at Ellis Island. He never saw his wife again or two of his children.

Jennie and her family were also denied entrance at Ellis Island and spent two years in Buenos Aires before arriving in the U.S. Their second child was born in Argentina.

More Reflections on Ellis Island

2010-10-27T14:59:00.004-04:00

Here are more of your comments about the trip:

"Because of the trip, I feel a stronger connection with our heritage as Americans."
"It gave me empathy for our grandparents and how brave they were. My grandmother was 13 years old and came to Ellis Island by herself in 1895 from Hungary."
"It gave me a good understanding of what the immigrants went through and their reasons for leaving their countries."
"I would like to go back for some reflection. This must have been overwhelming, scary and exciting for our ancestors."
"It was interesting to walk though the exhibits and think about William Williams, Powderly and others who worked here. Reading American Passage definitely enhanced my overall experience! The immigrants and immigration feel very real to me."
"This was a great opportunity for me to learn about Ellis Island. I love American history and was fascinated by the stories of Ellis Island."
"Visiting Ellis was a wonderful learning experience. I could feel the history in this special place."

Reflections on Ellis Island

2010-10-20T16:57:00.005-04:00

These are some of the comments about your favorite parts of the Ellis Island trip, taken from the evaluation forms.

Vincent Cannato was a popular guide and source of information. Having the author there to interpret the museum was a definite plus. Here’s what you said you liked:

“Time spent with Vin.”
“He was very knowledgeable, but more than that, his guidance and answers to questions were clear and very informative”
“Detail provided by Mr. Cannato.”
“Having a private room where we could sit and ask questions at the end of the tour.”
“Author’s insights that went farther than the museum’s exhibits.”
“The guided tour helped me focus on individual exhibits better.”
“He was very open to questions and had lots of info to share.”
“The guided tour helped me to focus on individual exhibits better.”
“Very enjoyable particularly with Vin along. What better way to tour Ellis Island!”
“Loved Vincent Cannato!”

For many of you, the photographs of the immigrants displayed throughout the museum were especially compelling, because they showed “how immigrants lived while at Ellis.”

“Photos and exhibits which show so much emotion.”
“Photos of the immigrants in the clothing of their native countries. The photos of the “street Arabs” were sad but compelling.”
“I loved the photos of the immigrants. Their faces tell the story.”

Third Book Discussion (October 1, 2010)

2010-10-15T09:56:00.002-04:00

Some of the responses to the question “What was the most surprising, interesting or disturbing fact you learned from the book?” were

Theodore Roosevelt’s role in immigration policy
immigration laws and the mentality behind them, particularly those that discriminated against certain groups
the role of the steamship companies, how they recruited immigrants
that the percentage of people excluded was very low and never varied much
the tremendous amount of research in the book, including details of the people involved and the cases of immigrants
the people in charge of immigration and their attitudes
the stereotyping of immigrants
the numbers of immigrants needed to fill jobs in America at that time
the discussion of the current climate in the U.S. regarding immigration and the suggestion by some that we create “a new Ellis Island”
that immigrants had no papers or documents
Ellis Island was used as a prison
the terrorist attack on Black Tom Island in WWI
many of the questions Cannato raises are those we are still dealing with
class distinctions – only the steerage passengers were examined

We discussed the categories of exclusion and the intelligence tests, in which persecuted people and farmers were expected to pass literacy and intelligence tests such as the Binet test. One comment was that these tests were adopted out of a fear of “polluting the gene pool, a fear that still exists today.”

We talked about Roosevelt, who created the civil service system and then went around it to appoint his cronies. The civil service system was needed to provide some stability in government agencies.

In a discussion of the historical significance of Ellis Island, we talked about how there are so many ways of looking at Ellis Island. It’s a story of inclusion and exclusion. It’s a symbol of diversity and a story of leveling. It makes us aware of how so many people would do anything to come here. In America, a person could start out as a worker and end up being a boss, which is not possible in many countries. It’s a symbol of how people could overcome indignity.

One person commented that “Ellis Island is about the fabric of history and how we became Americans. It’s not us and them; it’s when we became us.”

Photos of the Trip

2010-10-14T10:02:00.000-04:00

Ellis Island Trip – More Thoughts

2010-10-13T11:24:00.004-04:00

I want to thank all of you who have sent emails and blog comments about the trip. Here are two comments I received:

"The history of Ellis Island is important for all Americans to know. I am so glad that I had the chance to read American Passage and visit Ellis Island. I am encouraging my children to bring my grandchildren to visit this historical treasure."

“We had a great time reading the book, discussing it at home, reading the blog, and hearing others' opinions at the discussion group. The trip was the icing on the cake. Even the weather cooperated! Mr. Cannato was interesting, informative, approachable, and fun.”

I found that the Ellis Island story is the story of the triumph of the immigrants. It’s true that their success in America came at the expense of other groups, namely African-Americans who had been brought over as slaves and Native Americans, many of whom were displaced, killed and removed from their culture. Many of the immigrants came fleeing unemployment, economic hardship, starvation and pogroms. Although the first generation of immigrants often struggled to feed, house and clothe their families, they did it so that their children and grandchildren could live more prosperous and more secure lives.

Ellis Island Trip

2010-10-08T17:18:00.005-04:00

The trip on October 2 was fantastic! We could not have hoped for better weather. Meeting Vincent Cannato was a highlight of the trip. He was a knowledgeable and personable guide to the immigration museum. The fact that we had read his book American Passage before the trip gave added meaning to the exhibits and photos. It was a pleasure spending the day with such a congenial group of people. Here are some of the photos people have sent me.

Make the Journey, Connect with America's Past

2010-10-01T13:25:00.004-04:00

Epilogue

2010-10-01T11:31:00.001-04:00

How does immigration to the U.S. since the 1990s compare with immigration during the peak years of Ellis Island’s operation? The numbers are higher, but because there are four times as many people in the country than when Ellis Island opened, the number of immigrants as a percentage of the total population is smaller today.

A major concern about immigration is the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country. Solutions for creating “Ellis Island centers” that would sift out undesirable immigrants have been proposed. (page 412) The notion of the “relative ease in regulating immigrants [at Ellis Island] would have amused those who ran the inspection station and believed they were barely holding back the flood of European immigrants seeking entry.” (page 413)

Some of the concerns and issues Americans face today are

the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country
fears about the quality of today’s immigrants and that they will not assimilate
the bureaucratic red tape that can discourage those seeking to immigrate legally
the inherent conflict between the principle that all men and women are equal and a need to choose who should be admitted
the need to stop terrorists from entering the country

In the face of these concerns, Cannato reminds us that many of the fears of immigration restrictionists during the Ellis Island period ultimately proved baseless.

Can the history of Ellis Island provide lessons that will lead to a satisfactory solution to today’s immigration issues? “Historians should be wary of writing history that provides a ‘usable past,’” Cannato cautions. (page 417) “However, the history of Ellis Island should remind us that the problems that the United States is dealing with today are not unique and the questions Americans are asking themselves today are very similar to the ones that bedeviled those who came before us.” (page 418)

He discusses what it will take to craft a successful immigration policy, one that will “keep the gates open to continue our long history of welcoming strangers who in turn help build this unfinished nation, while reassuring native-born Americans that the laws are being enforced and social dislocations that arise from immigration are minimized.” (page 418)

The words of Sophie Wolf who came to the United States from Germany in 1923, describe the ambivalence many people feel toward immigrants. “We should not let anyone in. When we came, the rules were you could not be a burden to the state,” she said in an interview in 1980. “But,” she added, “You’ve got to give people a chance.” (page 410)

Chapter 19 - The New Plymouth Rock

2010-09-30T16:00:00.004-04:00

Restoration
In the early 1980s the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, a public-private partnership, raised almost $300 million to restore these two monuments. Lee Iacocca, the son of Italian immigrants headed both the public and the private efforts. His efforts relied heavily on attracting corporate sponsorships, which brought complaints that he was selling national shrines to corporations. (page 393)

The restored Statue of Liberty was unveiled July 3, 1986 in a ceremony characterized by a journalist as “a revolting display of patriotic glitz and tacky pageantry.” (page 394)

Although he was fired from the public commission, Iacocca continued his efforts on behalf of the privately-funded Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. He was committed to the restoration of Ellis Island because, for Iacocca, Ellis Island was “ a symbol of immigrant success and American greatness” (page 394)

Some historians warned that if the restoration were left completely in the hands of private organizations, the lack of public accountability threatened to turn the project into “a Disney-like ‘Immigrant Land’.” (page 395)

The Meaning of Ellis Island
To some immigrants and their descendants, the island was a place of fear and desperation, and best forgotten. To others it commemorated “the struggle and eventual triumph” of immigrants. (page 396)

Cannato dates the identification of Ellis Island as a national icon back to Jacob Riis in 1903, and the symbolism of the immigrant station as a “new Plymouth Rock” to Mary Antin, who wrote that “Ellis Island is another name for Plymouth Rock.” (page 396) Others, such as Louis Adamic, a Slovenian immigrant, spoke of recognizing the significance of the people who came over in “unglorified immigrant steerage” and exhorted his listeners: “Let’s make America safe for diffierences. Let us work for unity within diversity.” (page 397)

After its days as a prison during WWII, Ellis Island was neglected, until the 1960s and 1970s brought attention once again to its history. Senator Ted Kennedy wrote a moving article in Esquire magazine reminding readers to remember America’s “humble origins” and the symbolism of Ellis Island.

Nostalgia and Ethnic Pride
The Restore Ellis Island Commission, headed by Peter Sammartino, convinced Congress to appropriate $1 million toward the island’s restoration and another $7 million to restore the seawall, and it was opened on a limited basis in 1976. Still in need of many repairs, the island closed again in 1984.

Mario Cuomo, Geraldine Ferraro and Michael Dukakis, all descendants of immigrants rose to political prominence.

Following addition restoration work, Ellis Island reopened in 1990. The main building was now an immigration museum. “Visitors disembarking from the ferry would stroll up the path toward the building just as many of their ancestors had.” (page 399)

Lee Iacocca came up with the idea of an American Immigrant Wall of Honor, which confused many people, who view it thinking that the names of everyone who came through Ellis Island are inscribed on it. The reality is that anyone donating $100 or more can have a name added to the wall. Many of those represented were not Ellis Island immigrants.

Sam Ting and Sean Ferguson
Cannato dispels the myth that immigrants’ names were changed at Ellis Island by insensitive officials who could not spell Polish and Italian surnames. In fact, he says, the officials never wrote down the immigrants’ names, but took them from the ships’ manifests. He says that some immigrants may have made up the stories to cover up their self-consciousness at having changed their own names to make them seem more “American.”

Read this New York Times article about the reasons fewer immigrants change their names today compared to a century ago. "New Life in U.S. No Longer Means New Name"

A National Icon
The iconic status Ellis Island as a national icon has troubled some historians and scholars. Their misgivings stem from three concerns

First, the memorializing of Elis Island should not be used to make negative comparisons with newer immigrant groups. Second, the refurbished Ellis Island should not lead to ideological celebrations of the free-market of “up-by-the bootstraps” homilies. Last, critics contend that the “nation of immigrants” saga embodied in the Ellis Island story leaves out groups that did not voluntarily emigrate to the United State, namely American Indians and the descendants of African slaves. (page 403)

The National Park Service has made an effort include all Americans in the national story, including Native Americans and forced immigrants.

Further Development of the Island
The National Park Service and the nonprofit organization Save Ellis Island have been raising funds to restore the buildings on the south side of the island that housed the medical facilities.

Read about the efforts of Save Ellis Island. "Funds Sought to Continue Restoration at Ellis Island," New York Times.

Historical Memory
Cannato poses the question of whether we should regard Ellis Island as a “sacred place, and . . . hallowed ground in American history,” as former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed. (page 408)

He concludes that “the historical memory of Ellis Island, like all memory, has been created over time, and that memory will continue to evolve in the future. What exactly this historic site symbolizes can be a matter of debate even with the same family.” (page 409)

Part V - Memory

2010-09-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

Chapter 18 - Decline
Ellis Island was now up for sale as surplus government property. In response to complaints, the Eisenhower government delayed the sale of the immigration station. Nonetheless, bidding was opened in 1958, but the one bid, from a developer who wanted to turn the island into a convention center, was too low.

Historians and politicians including Oscar Handlin, Edward Corsi and Allan Nevins came forward to advocate for the preservation of the island.

How should Ellis Island to be remembered and commemorated? As a place of suffering for what immigrants had to undergo to be allowed into the U.S.? As a symbol of “the welding of many nationalities, races and religions into a united nation, bound together by freedom and equality of opportunity”? (Corsi’s words, quoted on page 381) As a museum?

Civil Rights Era
In addition to promoting civil rights for all Americans, President Lyndon B. Johnson called for an immigration law “based on the work a man can do and not where he was born and how he spells his name.” (page 382) He signed a bill ending immigration quotas as they had previously been established. However, overall quotas remained, limiting the total number of people who could immigrate to the U.S. each year.

In 1965 President Johnson signed a proclamation making Ellis Island part of the National Park Service. Plans for developing the island never materialized.

A Seedy Ghost Town
How did children and grandchildren of those who came through Ellis Island regard the island? Was it a symbol of their success and assimilation, or just a place where their ancestors happened to land?

The neglected and empty buildings were rundown, vandalized and rotting.

African-Americans and Ellis Island
The family stories of most African-Americans, which included slavery, emancipation and discrimination under Jim Crow laws, were dramatically different from the stories of voluntary immigrants who arrived in an America where there were jobs and opportunities for everyone willing to work hard.

“Race and immigration in America have an intertwined and complex relationship,” Cannato states. (page 384) “Periods of mass immigration have coincided with low points in African-American history.” (page 385)

In this chapter we learn the bizarre story of a physician, Dr. Thomas Matthew, and his attempt to establish a self-sufficient African-American community on Ellis Island. Although his colony was not legally established at first, the group was left alone, and Mathew later got a five-year permit from the National Park Service allowing his group to remain on the island. The plan ultimately failed because of Mathew’s legal and financial problems and the “deteriorated, dilapidated, unsanitary” conditions of the island. (page 389)

The Melting Pot
Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan published a book, Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City, in 1963. In their study of racial and ethnic groups in New York, the authors concluded that the popular melting-pot U.S. image was misleading because ethnic groups maintained distinct and dynamic identities. Despite this evidence, they maintained that assimilation is still the goal of American culture.

In Cannato’s opinion, “the growth of black power and racial pride among African-Americans helped spur white ethnic groups to more public displays of their own identity.” (page 390)

In the meantime, Ellis Island “had been forgotten and sat in New York Harbor as a rotting symbol of a bygone era.” (page 390)

Conclusion of Chapter 17

2010-09-28T14:00:00.001-04:00

Prison
The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was the new intelligence agency formed during WWII. An agent spent three weeks undercover on Ellis Island and reported that the place was a security risk. He saw the island as “an important transmission center” for intelligence (page 352). Hoover was angry at the reports of lax security and bad behavior by guards and officials.

One of the strangest cases Cannato describes is that of William Gerald Bishop, arrested in 1940, supposedly for being involved in a terrorist plot. Although his trial ended in a hung jury, and the government later dismissed charges against him, Bishop was detained in 1942 as an enemy alien. His claim of U.S. citizenship was challenged. Bishop was an open supporter of Germany’s Nazi government.

Some of those detained, such as the opera singer Ezio Pinza, were not avowed fascist sympathizers or anti-American. Pinza was caught in Hoover’s web because he was Italian, and because individuals had made allegations about his political sympathies. When accusations such as those against Pinza, are based on hearsay, with no hard evidence backing them up, are the accused person’s rights being safeguarded? To what extent is it acceptable, in time of war, to punish someone without hard evidence?

Although Pinza’s story ultimately had a good outcome, Cannato points out that his story “was just one of thousands.” (page 356) Some of the people held were U.S. citizens, as in the case of the Neupert family.

Most of the detainees were taken to internment camps around the country. The end of the war did not bring an end to the detainees’ ordeal. President Truman issued a proclamation ordering enemy aliens to be deported.

As the government closed the internment camps, the detainees were sent back to New York to wait for the disposition of their cases. Hundreds of detainees awaited the outcome of their petitions. They did not want to be sent back to postwar Germany. Many would be sent to the part of that country under Soviet occupation.

In 1947 more than 200 were still being held at Ellis Island, in conditions that were described as “cramped, dirty and stultifying.” (page 358) The appeals dragged on until August 1948. Some detainees were returned to Germany, some agreed to be deported to other countries, such as Argentina. Only one person remained on the island after this, a former U.S. army sergeant arrested on charges of being a German spy.

By now America had entered the Cold War, and Germans were now allies instead of enemies. The new enemies were the Soviet Union and Communism.

A New War
In 1950 the U.S. was at war in Korea. That same year Congress passed the Internal Security Act in 1950, which “would force Communists and other subversives in the United States to register with the federal government.” (page 360)

The new law also allowed the government to exclude any person who belonged to an organization that advocated “any form of totalitarianism.” President Truman vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode the veto.

Truman retaliated by ordering his Attorney General to strictly enforce the law. By following the letter of the law, the web of justice caught up many who had been forced, sometimes as young children, to join Fascist youth organizations. Truman’s move embarrassed Congress, which then clarified the law, excluding those who had been younger than 16 when they joined, or been forced to join, or who had joined for compelling reasons such as to receive food rations.

The War Bride
Ellen Knauff spent 27 months, from August 1948 to November 1951, in detention at Ellis Island. In Germany she had married a naturalized U.S. citizen and veteran who remained in Germany working for the occupation government while she traveled to the U.S. She was detained upon arrival because three Czech nationals had accused her of passing information to the Czech government when she worked for the U.S. army. She was not given the details of the charges against her because they were “classified to protect confidential intelligence sources.” (page 364)

Ellen, who was Jewish and had lost many family members in the Holocaust, called Ellis Island “a concentration camp with steam heat and running water.”

Her case reached the Supreme Court, which decided 4 to 3 against her petition. The prevailing opinion was based on the plenary power doctrine, which gave the executive branch of the government a great deal of latitude when dealing with aliens. (page 365)

Cannato describes Knauff’s case in detail, because it is an example of the inherent conflict between individual rights and the government’s right to withhold information and deny open hearings to an accused person when national security or secrecy is an issue. She did not give up her appeals and was ultimately admitted to the United States.

“Ellen Knauff’s case had gained nationwide publicity. But her case also brought attention to the fact that individuals could be detained and deported without benefit of an official hearing and without any knowledge of the evidence against them.” (page 369)

The Man Without a Country
Ignatz Mezei was not as fortunate as Ellen Knauff. His case did not win public sympathy. Like Knauff, his case reached the Supreme Court, which decided against Mezei, declaring that his detention was constitutional. One of the dissenting justices said that the powers given to the Attorney General in cases such as Mezei’s “were more likely found in totalitarian regimes like the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.” (page 373)

The Attorney General eventually released Mezei, although he had belonged to a Communist organization in Hungary.

Closed
Ellis Island’s role as a prison for aliens was criticized as being inconsistent with the laws and practices of a free and democratic country. A New York Times article stated, “Unlike the totalitarians and despots, we Americans abhor imprisonment by administrative fiat.” (page 375)

In 1954 a new policy freed most detained aliens on bond while their cases were being decided. In a cost-saving measure, six detention facilities, including Ellis Island, would be closed.

A Question about the Rights of Aliens Detained by the Government

2010-09-27T14:00:00.002-04:00

Darleen asked:
I would be interested in Vincent Cannato's thoughts on what we should do now with immigrants or those who are considered to be suspects living in the United States whom we think are plotting terrorists acts against the United States. Can we compare Quantanamo Bay now to the way Ellis Island was used during WWII?

Vincent Cannato’s response:
Obviously, the history of Ellis Island has some direct impact on the issue of terrorist detentions today. In some ways, Ellis Island was similar to Guantanamo Bay, beyond just the fact that they were both used to detain non-citizens deemed to be a threat to America. The reason Guantanamo Bay was used in the first place was that it was believed to exist outside the boundaries of “the United States” and therefore that the government would not have to grant things like to right to habeas corpus to detainees. It’s kind of like detaining soldiers on a battlefield, as opposed to arresting a terrorist in the United States. Guantanamo Bay was seen as an “in-between” place where we would not have to grant detainees the full battery of constitutional rights.

That was the idea with Ellis Island. An immigrant was not considered to have officially landed in the United States until immigration officials passed them through Ellis Island. What that meant was that immigrants at Ellis Island were not thought to possess the same constitutional rights as American citizens and those non-citizens legally within the US. Therefore, immigrants did not have the right to challenge their detention or demand the right due process, a fair trial, or free speech. Look at the case of John Turner, whose case went to the Supreme Court. He was allowed into the country, but then turned out to be an anarchist. He was arrested and sent to Ellis Island where he appealed his deportation order on the grounds that it violated his 1st Amendment rights to freedom of speech. The court ruled that since he did not enter the country legally, he was not entitled to the full panoply of constitutional rights. Look also at the post-war detentions of Ignatz Mezei and Ellen Knauf, who were detained in a similar manner as those held today at Gitmo.

Now obviously, the Supreme Court today has challenged that original notion that detainees at Gitmo have some, if not all, constitutional rights, including the right to a trial. This brings up a host of other issues. But as Darleen notes, there is a strong analogy between Ellis Island and Gitmo historically.

U.S. Ports of Entry for Immigrants

2010-09-27T08:30:00.002-04:00

A Question for Vincent Cannato
At the first book discussion, a question came up about ports other than Ellis Island at which immigrants landed. I didn’t know the answer, so I asked Vincent Cannato.
Question: What were the other ports of entry for immigrants during the period when the Ellis Island immigration station was active? I know about Philadelphia and Boston and San Francisco, and I know that a lot of people came through Canada. What about the south? What was to stop people from arriving on a ship from, say, New Orleans or Norfolk, Virginia, with the intent of staying in the country?

Vincent's Answer
On the first question, there were other ports. Ellis Island saw about 75 percent of immigrants during this period (1890-1920). Boston, Baltimore, Philly, San Francisco, were usually the next biggest ports, but way behind NYC. People did come across the northern and southern borders, but realistically most people are going to come through major ports. It’s cheaper and easier. If they landed at New Orleans or Norfolk, they would be inspected there as well. There are some cases of people coming into Canada and then sneaking across, but those numbers are probably pretty small.

Second Book Discussion (September 22, 2010)

2010-09-26T08:30:00.002-04:00

The first question we answered was “What was the most surprising, interesting or disturbing fact learned from the book?”

Some of the answers were

that immigrants didn’t receive documents when they passed through the immigration system
the horrifying choices people had to make – sometimes a family had to decide whether to send one family member back alone or whether they would all go back
the innuendos about single women and in general the treatment of women, the double standard
the constant turmoil of the period – the politics and changing policies on immigration
the Castle Garden period and how the immigration station there operated (of interest because this person’s ancestors came through there)
use of Ellis Island as a prison
the story of the decline of the immigration facilities
the intense political wrangling, like we have now - patronage politics, egos and fights
the harsh conditions
the famous people associated with immigration: Fiorello La Guardia, Roosevelt, Powderly
stereotypes about immigrants – the derogatory comments made about immigrants during the Ellis Island period are the same things people are saying about immigrants today

We talked about what it would take for us to have to leave the U.S. and go to another country. Extreme poverty, hunger, no jobs, promise of a better life, religious persecution, lack of land, absence of the ability to get an education were mentioned. These were the same factors that prompted people to leave Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Although there could be abuse of power by immigration officers, it was noted how often the officials would back down from their initial deportation rulings. In American Passage there are many stories of people originally declared undesirable who later had their deportation orders reversed. Even William Williams changed his mind in some cases. We noted those who advocated for immigrants, including members of immigrant aid societies and individuals such as Fiorello La Guardia and Oscar Straus.

How people lived once they got here was another topic of discussion. Yes, they lived in ghettoes, which often had terrible living conditions, but the ghettoes were also their strength, because they provided communities for the new Americans.

We discussed the conditions that brought so many people to these shores. One person said that immigration was natural, because manpower was needed for a growing country. Another person disagreed and said that although there was work, it was not a government policy to recruit laborers. Immigration was a practical solution to labor needs but was not generated by policy.

Why is it important to know the story of Ellis Island and the immigrants who came through there?

It’s important to know who you are.
Everybody is descended from immigrants.
We admire the tenacity of the people.
This is a nation of immigrants.
America stands for openness but with sovereignty to decide who gets in.
We appreciate that although we all come from different places, we’re all humans with the same basic needs.

Bethany tells her family's story

2010-09-24T14:34:00.004-04:00

My grandmother and grandfather arrived at Ellis Island in 1908 and 1905, just as so many before and after them have done. Leaving behind all that they knew and with only a dream of a life they had never seen, they left Poland to come to America. My grandparents did not know each other in Poland. Both were born in the late 1880’s in Partitioned Poland: my grandmother, Agnes, under German rule and my grandfather, Stanislaw, under Russian rule.

My grandfather immigrated first around 1904 or 1905 to avoid being enlisted in the Imperial Russian Army when he turned 17. Family lore tells that my grandfather purchased his passage from a friend who desperately needed money and that he entered the country under that man’s identity. On the surface, this would appear a fair trade at the time: my grandfather needed passage and his friend needed money. In hindsight though, I wonder if the friend regretted his decision since 1905 heralded a violent period in Poland beginning with the Russian Revolution, followed in 1914 by World War I, then by a series of border conflicts and finally culminating in World War II. My grandfather’s hometown of Kalisz was one of the first cities destroyed in World War I. Out of roughly 68,000 citizens in 1914; only 5,000 remained in Kalisz a year later. My grandfather’s brother Josef stayed in Poland and was enlisted in the Imperial Russian Army in 1905. Although he survived many battles and corresponded with my grandfather for several years, correspondence stopped around 1920 when it was believed that Josef was killed during the Polish-Soviet War.

My grandmother left Germany/Poland during the summer if 1908 and arrived at Ellis Island aboard the SS President Lincoln on July 3, 1908. She would join her twin sisters and their husbands who had already left Poland for America, but would leave behind an infant daughter in the care of her mother until she got settled in her new home. Happily, she returned to Ellis Island to be reunited with her daughter following her marriage to my grandfather. My grandmother’s younger brother remained in Poland where he was served in the Polish Army and was killed during World War I. All remaining relatives were believed to be killed during World War II when her hometown of Poznan was incorporated into the Third Reich and many of its Polish citizens executed, arrested, or used as forced labor.

My grandparent’s life together in Albany was modest, but compared to life in Poland, America must have seemed the land of milk and honey. Here they owned their own home where they raised a family of five—three sons and two daughters. My grandfather worked as a mechanic at the West Albany rail yards earning enough so that his wife did not have to work outside of the house. Instead of growing crops for subsistence, my grandfather was a gardener with the luxury of growing roses and dahlias simply for their beauty.

From opposite sides of Poland they had traveled and in America they arrived. A boy from Russian/Poland and a girl from German/Poland. Had they not come, they would likely have been caught up on opposing sides of the war within a few years time. Instead they had the courage to break from all they knew and venture across the ocean to an unknown life and join . . . “ those courageous men and women who came to this country in search of personal freedom, economic opportunity and a future of hope for their families.” (Excerpt from the American Immigrant Wall of Honor)

Dennis tells his family’s story

2010-09-20T08:30:00.000-04:00

I’m 50% Italian and 50% mongrel. My father’s family came from southern Italy, near Naples. My grandfather came to the U.S. before 1910 and worked in Pennsylvania. He went back to his hometown of San Marco di Cavoli to find a wife. It was an arranged marriage; his bride was 19. They married in October 1909. Both were from families with seven children.

They arrived in New York on New Year’s Eve of 1910. My grandmother’s brother’s family, the Riccis, lived here in Voorheesville, so they came here to be with them. Their family name was originally Iuliano.

Although he was born in the U.S., my father didn’t speak English until he was six. Consequently, I never learned Italian. My father said “My son will be an American!”

I have three documents: their Italian marriage certificate, one passport (my grandmother came on her husband’s passport) and a large framed photograph of my Grandfather, Nicola, in the military, with two other soldiers. I don't even actually know which one he is in the picture.

Chapter 17 - Prison

2010-09-19T08:30:00.001-04:00

War!
Although the U.S. did not enter the war until December 8, 1941, officials in FDR’s government had been drawing up lists of “suspicious aliens” for possible arrest when and if America joined the Allied forces since 1939. That year J. Edgar Hoover’s agents began collecting information on non-citizens suspected of sympathizing with Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy.

Once again, this is an example of people who were being identified because they “might” be sympathizers. These individuals had not committed any crime. More troubling is the list of American citizens “sympathetic” to Germany and Italy. There were over 4000 individuals who would be considered for detention.

The Immigration Service had been moved from the Labor Department to the Justice Department, giving Hoover the authority to detain and deport aliens. The day after Pearl Harbor, the head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) sent Hoover “a list of individuals ‘considered for custodial detention’ because of their views about Germany and Italy.” (page 351) The list included American citizens.

On December 8, the order came to Hoover from the attorney general to arrest “alien enemies who are natives, citizens, denizens of subjects of Germany,” even though the U.S. was not yet at war with Germany. The arrests began on December 9 and included hundreds of German, Italian and Japanese enemy aliens.

As with the detentions and deportations during WWI and the Red Scare, these arrests raise questions about how government balances civil liberties against security concerns. Did officials take reasonable steps that were in the best interests of United States citizens, or did they overstep and abridge individual rights?

Kay talks about her family’s story

2010-09-18T08:30:00.001-04:00

Some of the experiences of families in American Passage raised questions about my family’s journey and generated discussion among siblings. Both of my parents came to the U.S. separately from Germany to escape extreme poverty and starvation. My father worked for a while on a farm and had to eat some of the seed for planting to survive. My mother foraged in the potato fields. Both of them came from families with a lot of children, and because my mother was the oldest daughter, she had to leave to support the family. My father tried to get into the military but was rejected because of a heart condition. Both came from tiny towns in central Germany. They traveled to the port of Bremen, where my mother was detained for a while because she was anemic. My father was apprenticed for a while to a butcher, and he came to American in 1928. My mother came in 1933 on a consular passport, because she was a domestic worker in the consul’s home. After the consul returned to Germany she got an immigrant passport. I don’t know if they came through Ellis Island.

Both of their families, almost everyone, was killed in WWII. One family was from Dresden, which was destroyed by Allied bombing. After they left Germany they never saw their families again.

When my mother says “When we sailed into New York,” there is a tremor in her voice.

This was what America was to them, a country that had everything.

Kevin talks about his family’s story

2010-09-17T17:00:00.000-04:00

In 1927 my mom is 17 years old, living on a farm in the West of Ireland. She knows she can’t stay at home. she’s the second oldest in a large family, and the farm can’t support all of them. A common choice for Irish girls was to go to England and study to be a nurse, or she can stay in Ireland and marry a farmer, but the men marry late. Her third option, the one she chooses, is to emigrate to the United States. By that time the Irish community is well-established in New York, and she has an aunt living in Westchester. She was a typical “Irish Bridget,” the name given to girls who came over to do domestic work. There is a book called “Irish Bridgets,” and I found out that my mother had been interviewed by the author and is quoted in the book.

She met her husband, also an immigrant, who arrived from Northern Ireland about the same time she did. He had a chance to be partner in a bar in Queens with his brother-in-law, but he was very strait-laced, and when the cop on the beat stopped by for his “complementary whiskey” and my dad didn’t go for that, his scruples got the bar closed down. Things looked better upstate, so they moved to Greenwich in Washington County, where there was a large Irish community. They had an opportunity to buy a place and start a business there.

The largest employer in Greenwich was a linen mill, built as a replica of one in Belfast. The owners sent to Ireland for workers (they were probably contract laborers). The divisions between Catholics and Protestants was the same in the mill as it was in Belfast.

They had seven children.

First Book Discussion (September 13)

2010-09-17T09:37:00.007-04:00

The first American Passage book discussion took place on Monday, September 13. The book engaged everyone’s interest, and it was a lively discussion.

The first question we answered was “What was the most surprising, interesting or disturbing fact learned from the book?”

Some of the answers were

how difficult it was for immigrants to get into the United States
the fact that on average only 2% of people who came were excluded
the wall of honor at Ellis Island does not include all of or only those who came through Ellis Island
the immigrants who came through Ellis Island did not get documents after they were processed
the ethnocentrism of some Americans was mentioned
the stereotyping
the exclusion of Chinese immigrants
the cruelty of the eye exam
the treatment of immigrants in this era when the prevailing belief was that “science knows best”
the sheer volume of the numbers that came though that one small place.

We discussed the literacy issue, and there was some confusion about this. Cannato says when the literacy test became law, immigrants had to read a passage in their native language. We talked about how the unfairness of the literacy test, since many immigrants came from countries where there was no public education. The poor condition of their lives was one of the reasons compelling them to leave.

On the political side, we discussed the patronage system, the personalities and feuds among the individuals and governmental agencies in charge of immigration. We decided that nothing much has changed.

As far as the hearings went, one person pointed out that Ellis Island was an example of the beginning of administrative law, which is common today, but not back then. The laws passed by Congress were vague, and it was up to officials to interpret and enforce them. Hence the inconsistency in the treatment of immigrants sent for hearings. Some of them got appeals and got their deportations reversed, and some of them did not. The same arguments are advanced today about administrative law.

Why They Came
Why did people want to come to America? This was a topic we discussed at length. Some came to escape persecution, such as the Jews living in Czarist Russia and the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, some to get away from the strict hierarchy by class that existed in most countries of Europe and generally to escape poverty, famine and war. Perhaps the overriding reason was that America with its open doors was a land of opportunity, where people could sell their labor, and their desire to come and work was welcomed by business owners. This is the same reason people are coming to the U.S. today.

The United States in the Ellis Island era was a vast land with plenty of space and plenty of work, even though some, like the Chinese, who built the most difficult part of the Transcontinental Railroad, were not wanted after their job was complete.

Human Issues
There was much discussion about the human issues and many expressed concern for those who were sent back to their homelands. Questions raised were what were the mechanics of sending them back, and where did they go? Were they taken back to the port from which they had left? If they had spent all their money on their passage to America, how did they get back to their homes?

We kept returning to the human issues. Many parents sent their children to America knowing they would never see them again. To many people in many parts of the world, this rupture was necessary, though painful. Sentiment was a luxury they couldn’t afford.

Conclusion of Chapter 16

2010-09-11T13:38:00.001-04:00

Deterioration
The melodramatic story of Giulietta LaMarca’s attempts to avoid deportation, and the complaints of British immigrants complaining to Parliament that they did not get the special treatment they deserved introduce a bit of humor into this chapter. The bigotry underlying the Brits’ complaints is not so funny, however.

On a more serious note, the facilities at Ellis Island were badly deteriorated. The buildings were in need of repair, and the commissioner, Henry Curran, could not get Congress to authorize funds for the needed improvements. According to Cannato, Curran was sympathetic to immigrants, but the situation was bad and complaints about Ellis Island were persistent. Curran resigned his post after a frustrating three years.

Lower Quotas, More Deportations & Other Reforms
In 1924 Congress lowered the quota to 2% of each foreign-born nationality. This time the figures were based on the 1890 census. As a result of this new method of calculation, 85% of the allotments went to northern Europeans, although not the English, because the big waves of immigration to America beginning in the mid-19th century were made up predominantly of Irish and Germans.

Deportations increased in the 1920’s. Cannato gives these statistics: “From 1910 to 1918, an average of 2,750 immigrants were deported each year. By 1921, over 4,500 immigrants were deported annually, and by 1930, that figure had skyrocketed to 16,631.” (page 343)

Inspection of immigrants shifted away from American ports to consulates abroad. Fiorello La Guardia had advocated this change in procedure based on his experience as a consular official in Fiume, Italy. This method of screening immigrants meant that virtually all of those who passed consular scrutiny would be guaranteed entry into the United States. There would be far fewer heartbreaking stories of immigrants who had spent all their money, only to be denied entry and deported. On the other hand, there would be far fewer immigrants allowed into the U.S.

Illegals
Stricter controls and lower quotas led to more illegal immigration. President Harding’s Labor Secretary warned him that large numbers were bypassing the quotas and coming in illegally. Calvin Coolidge, inaugurated as President in 1923, warned that this “seepage over the borders” was a “considerable menace.” (page 343)

An Anglo-Saxon Nation?
In 1920 Congress authorized yet another study to “determine the precise ethnic makeup of all American citizens living in the country in 1920. The result was a so-called national origins plan.” (page 344) The study was inherently biased, since it counted only white people. The commission reached the conclusion that more than 56% of Americans were descended from non-British ancestors. It’s hard to believe that people could be surprised by this fact, since millions of immigrants from all over the world had been coming into the country for decades.

New quotas dropped the number of immigrants to be admitted yearly and gave immigrants from the United Kingdom almost half of the quota. (page 344)

Edward F. McSweeney, who had recovered from his near-disgrace in 1902, was critical of the pro-British bias and efforts such as the “national origins plan.” He said studies such as these were an “impudent imposition…fabricated for a sinister purpose and are in truth discrimination.” (page 345)

More Enlightened Views
Some individuals who had in their careers focused on the inferiority of immigrants, changed their views over time. Henry Goddard, who had coined the term “moron,” modified his beliefs (page 346), and Edward A Ross, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin, later in life abandoned his belief in the Nordic Myth of superiority (page 347).

Ellis Island’s Role Continues to Diminish
Edward Corsi, appointed commissioner in 1931, was not the first immigrant to direct operations at Ellis Island, but he was the first to have entered through that port.

“The 1930s would represent a low point in U.S. immigration history.” (page 348) Some years more people were leaving the country than coming in. Ellis Island will once again become a prison for unwanted aliens and a source of controversy.

What’s Your Opinion?Why was so difficult for some Americans to accept the fact, which seems to me incontrovertible, that America was by this time (the 1930’s) a multi-racial and multi-ethnic nation?

Chapter 16 - Quotas

2010-09-10T16:28:00.001-04:00

A New Method of Determining Who Will Be Admitted
Cannato begins this chapter by pointing out that throughout its history as an immigration portal, Ellis Island officials had kept a balance, “allowing a generally free immigration while barring those few deemed undesirable.” (page 331) War, the Red Scare and economic recession had brought about a change in the national mood. When immigration resumed after WWI, the numbers started to swell. There were fears of an unlimited number of refugees from postwar Europe coming to America, more than the nation could absorb. Estimates from the steamship companies and from Anthony Caminetti’s investigations of conditions in Europe gave figures of anywhere from 15 to 25 million Europeans wanting to emigrate.

Congress Acts - Again
Albert Johnson, chairman of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, introduced a bill to suspend immigration for two years, but that idea was rejected as too drastic. Instead Senator William Dillingham put forward the idea of a quota.

The House and Senate agreed on a plan that would apportion immigrants by nationality. The number allowed from each country would be 3% of the number of foreign-born living in the United States. The numbers would be taken from the 1910 census.

President Wilson did not sign the bill, and it did not become law.

A New President Signs the Bill
President Warren Harding signed a quota bill shortly after becoming president. When the bill had been voted on in Congress, there were few negative votes. The law went into effect in June 1921. Only 355,000 immigrants would be admitted each year. The bill was in effect for three years.

Sifting - Again
Because the quotas were based on the 1910 census, the new law had some of the effects restrictionists had wanted all along. Only 43% of the allocation would go to immigrants from eastern and southern Europe. In 1914, 296,414 Italian immigrants had entered the U.S. The new quota would admit only 40,294.

On pages 334 and 335 Cannato discusses the reasons for this “drastic change to immigration policy." He credits the change in Americans’ tolerance for immigration to:
• America’s involvement in WWI which led to increased isolationism
• the link between immigration and radicalism
• the growing popularity of eugenics, whose proponents claimed to be able to “scientifically” prove the inferiority of certain races and nationalities
• the prejudice by some Americans against certain nationalities they considered “backward”
• complaints by some that immigrants had failed to assimilate

The author of Saturday Evening Post article warned that “immigration must be stopped. This is a matter of life and death for America.” (page 336)

Conclusion of Chapter 15

2010-09-09T16:31:00.000-04:00

Palmer Raids
In this chapter we meet A. Mitchell Palmer, who went beyond the scope of his office (he was Attorney General and therefore part of the Justice Department). The ability to order deportations was supposed to lie with the Department of Labor. However, in his zeal to ferret out and rid the country of alien radicals, he somehow managed to bypass Labor. He found an enthusiastic ally in J. Edgar Hoover.

In November 1919 Palmer authorized the arrest of more than 10,000 suspected radicals. Although many of those arrested in the series of raids he organized, several hundred were deported.

Emma Goldman
Goldman was a high profile radical. Among the crimes for which she had been previously arrested for speaking publicly about birth control, and she served two years in prison for trying to obstruct the draft effort when the country was mobilizing for entry into World War I. (page 319)

Goldman’s claim of U.S. citizenship (she had a brief marriage to a naturalized immigrant) was ignored. According to the U.S. government, she had no legal right to remain in the country.

She and her friend and fellow radical Alexander Berkman were deported on December 21, 1919, along with 2 other women and 245 men. (page 323)

After two years in Russia, Goldman wrote two volumes which were published together with the title My Disillusionment with Russia. In her work she criticized the betrayal of revolutionary ideals by the Bolshevik government,” formidable, crushing every constructive revolutionary effort, suppressing, debasing, and disintegrating everything.”

Goldman spent the rest of her life in Europe. She returned twice to the U.S. She was allowed to return on a 90-day visa to lecture and raise funds to aid the Spanish Republican cause in the 1930’s. She died in Toronto and is buried in Chicago.

Cannato gives an example of “guilt by association” that was used to arrest many suspected radicals. Julius Goldman (no relation to Emma) was detained and sent to Ellis Island after he attended a speech by Goldman and Berkman at Forward Hall. (page 319)

Cannato puts the deportations of individuals like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman in the context of previously existing laws and policies. He points out that the roundups and deportations were nothing new, but “were merely a continuation of longstanding immigration policy.” (page 327)

He describes the heightened fear of menaces from abroad - the flu pandemic, Communism, revolution, war that led to increased isolationism (page 327).

Individual Rights vs Public Safety
How far can a government go to maintain public safety and security? Considering the fear that America was moving toward a revolution like the one that had overthrown the Czarist government in Russia, were officials justified in cracking down on speech? Is opposing the draft in time of war, or speaking out against war, free speech or a threat? What about threats to a government?

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes stated that deportation was not a punishment, but “simply a refusal by the government to harbor persons whom it does not want.” (page 326) Is this a reasonable position? What do you think?

Chapter 15 - Revolution

2010-09-07T19:50:00.001-04:00

Wobblies
The war over, many Americans feared political and social revolt would erupt in the United States as it had in Europe where there was disorder, strikes and economic hardships. Labor, frustrated by low wage increases during the war and by post-war inflation, pressed for improvements. In 1919 365,000 steel workers went on strike. Many of the workers on whom the government focused attention were members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The IWW had garnered negative attention for opposing U.S. entry into WWI. They were a more radical alternative to the AFL and were committed to organizing workers regardless of skills, gender, race or ethnicity.

Cannato focuses on the steel strike in Seattle and the arrest of alien radicals there. Forty-seven people were sent to Ellis Island for deportation and were held incommunicado, because officials insisted that, because they were not citizens, the rights guaranteed to Americans did not apply to them.

Fear
Cannato describes the social and political climate at the time these arrests were made. The 1917 Immigration Act had added to the list of excluded categories “those opposed to all organized government” or who advocated “the unlawful destruction of property.” (page 313) Foreign-born radicals were targeted.

Fred Howe, Commissioner of Ellis Island, went against the prevailing sentiment. He had been in Paris with President Wilson for the Paris Peace Conference, but when he returned to Ellis Island he postponed the deportations, which allowed the IWW lawyers time to present their clients’ cases to Washington. As a result, only nine of those arrested were deported. The rest were paroled or released. (page 314)

In the face of criticism that he was too lenient toward radical aliens, Howe resigned in September 1919.

Fairness
Even though those targeted by government officials were not citizens, they were living in the U.S., which was a democracy. Should they have had the right to legal counsel and hearings? The radicals were targeted for their supposed beliefs, not for their actions. Were the charges against them vague?

Ellen has shared her family’s immigration stories

2010-09-01T16:54:00.003-04:00

Ancestors on both sides of my mother's family were farming on Long Island in the 1600s. Later on, some of their descendants fought in the Revolution. My father's ancestors probably came to America through Castle Garden. His father's father immigrated from County Cork and worked on the Barge Canal. While my parents and grandparents were still alive no one seemed terribly interested in talking about the distant past, so a lot family history has been lost and I don't have any vivid immigration stories to relate. However, one story I do remember hearing about the County Cork immigrant is how he taught my grandfather to swim by tossing him off a boat into the Hudson River. They lived in the Port Schuyler section of Watervliet at the time. Perhaps that was a typical teaching method for the time. I don't know, but it did make an impression on my grandfather.

Conclusion of Chapter 14

2010-08-31T11:19:00.001-04:00

The Melting Pot
America is God's Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming!
Israel Zangwill, playwright (1864-1926)

Zangwill used the metaphor of a melting-pot to describe what was happening to immigrants in America. The image suggests that there will be no more Irish, Germans, Poles, English, Italians, Jews, Russians - that everyone will be melted down and formed into “Americans.” His play of that title was one of the most successful ever produced on Broadway.

Read about “The Melting Pot” on the PBS website

New York intellectual Randolph Bourne did not see assimilation as an unqualified good. He pointed out that the Anglo-Saxon Americans like Prescott Hall wanted assimilation to turn everyone “into a tasteless, colorless fluid of uniformity,” (page 306) in short, he wanted them all to be like Anglo-Saxons. Bourne was perhaps ahead of his time in advocating multiculturalism, the idea that immigrants would maintain their cultural traditions and take pride in their heritage and parentage and believing that they could do this and still become Americans.

I lived in Canada for three years and was interested to learn that Canadians call their society a “mosaic” rather than a melting pot. Instead of a melting-down process, the mosaic concept promotes respect for the distinctiveness of ethnic identities.

Read about Canadian Multiculturalism

In my opinion we live in a society in which most Americans today are proud of their heritage, one that is more multicultural than melting pot. What do you think?

Literacy Test - Again

Congress again passed a literacy test, in spite of the fact that presidents had vetoed it four times since the 1890s. Wilson vetoed this one, but Congress was able to override his veto. The new law did not have a significant effect, however. Cannato tells us 6,533 individuals were excluded by the literacy test between 1908 and 1917.

Part IV - Disillusion and Restriction

2010-08-30T19:19:00.002-04:00

Chapter 14 - War

Sabotage!
This chapter begins with a bang - literally. An explosion and fire on Black Tom Island in New York harbor was the work of German saboteurs, who set explosives in boxcars and barges loaded with munitions. The men were part of a German plot to sabotage the war effort. This event happened in 1916, before the United States joined the war in Europe, but the U.S. was sending munitions to aid the allies.

Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Fueled
It seems inevitable that this event should increase distrust of immigrants, since the destruction was the work of a foreign government and its agents carried out on American soil. Cannato says that “the road to the Japanese internment camps [of World War II] began at Black Tom Island. (page 292)

Congress declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. In his war proclamation, President Wilson focused on the danger of “enemy aliens” to a country now at war with a foreign power. “Any male over the age of fourteen born in Germany, residing in the United States, and not a naturalized U.S. citizen, overnight became an alien enemy, part of a potential fifth column ready to strike America on behalf of the Kaiser.” (page 293) There were restrictions on where these individuals could live and what they could say in print. Violating these restrictions would lead to arrest, without a trial.

Alien and Sedition Acts
The government’s action was based on the Alien Enemies Act, which was one part of the Alien and Sedition Acts passed in 1798. These laws were controversial at the time of their passage, and Cannato points out that they were quickly repealed, except for the Alien Enemies Act. (page 293)

Read about the Alien and Sedition Acts on the Library of Congress website.

Ellis Island in the War Years
Frederic C. Howe, a Progressive and a reformer, was in charge of the immigration station during the war years. From the account given of him in American Passage, he seems to have been willing to give immigrants the benefit of the doubt. He tried to improve the lives of detained immigrants by adding recreational facilities. He also attempted to have inspection of immigrants extended to first and second class passengers, without success. Class privilege prevailed.

Ellis Island became a military detention center for those labeled enemy aliens. Almost 1500 Germans who worked on the steamships bringing immigrants to America were held there and later transferred to a camp at Hot Springs, North Carolina. The internment of at least one German national, Herman Byersdorff, had tragic consequences. Were these men dangerous? Their “crime” was being German.

Ellis Island’s hospital was used for wounded troops. There were few immigrants arriving during the war. Europe was in chaos, and fewer people were able to leave. Cannato gives a figure of 878,000 as the number of immigrants who came through Ellis Island in 1914. The following year, the number was down to 178,000.

Another Congressional Investigation
In 1916, Congress investigated Howe on the charges that he was “lenient toward immigrant women of questionable morality.” (page 301) Once again immigrants’ sexual habits were under scrutiny.

Howe investigated cases of individuals who had been ordered deported. He was criticized for allowing women of “questionable morality” to remain in the country. He worked with charitable organizations to rehabilitate some of the women. “I have, I admit thought of the poor, ignorant, immoral women detained at the Island as human beings entitled to every help to a fair start in the world,” Howe is quoted as saying. (page 303)

Howe was, Cannato points out, somewhat out of his element as Commissioner of Ellis Island. He was politically naïve and his involvement in various causes and organizations kept him away from his post much of the time, leaving him open to criticism.

Vincent Cannato Answers Some Questions

2010-08-28T08:30:00.003-04:00

Here is a second posting based on two questions Suzanne sent me.

1) What kind of documents did immigrants get at the end of the Ellis Island process? This is a very good question and gets to the heart of some of the confusion surrounding the Ellis Island experience. Basically, the immigrant did not receive any paperwork. This is the era before visas and passports were optional. The main record of an immigrant's presence at Ellis Island was the ship's manifest and that was not a legal document. When people do genealogical research on the Ellis Island website (www.ellisisland.org), these are the records that they find.

When immigrants went to become naturalized, the documents that US officials went to see how and when the immigrant first landed was the ship's manifest.

This question leads to one of the biggest myths regarding Ellis Island, which we will discuss in more depth when Suzanne gets to the later chapters -- the name change myth. People could not have been given new names at Ellis Island largely because they were never given any official paperwork when they left.

2) How many Ellis Island immigrants became citizens? To be honest, I don't know the answer to that question and don't know if there even is a figure for that. (One of the most important lessons in being a professor is to admit when you don't know the answer.)

Having said that, it is important to remember that not all of those who passed through Ellis Island stayed in America. Some were what is called "birds of passage." They would come to America for a few years, save some money, and then return to their homelands. Some individuals made three or four trips back and forth over the years.

The rates for these "birds of passage" vary with different ethnicities.
Italians had one of the highest rates, with over 40 percent going back to their homelands. Jews had some of the lowest rates, which makes sense considering that they were fleeing anti-Semitic persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe.

--posted by Vincent Cannato

Vincent Cannato talks about why he wrote American Passage

2010-08-27T14:46:00.008-04:00

Let Me Introduce Myself
This is my first posting on this site. I guess I had to start somewhere. I want to thank Suzanne for setting all of this up. I am looking forward to our Oct. 2 trip to Ellis Island.

So, why did I write the book? I have a personal connection to Ellis Island since a number of my relatives, including my paternal grandfather, went through it. In the 1990s, I was a tour guide for Big Onion Walking Tours and gave many tours through Ellis Island. So I have a connection for the place.

Ellis Island is such a mythical place for Americans and I was surprised at how little was written about it. There were children's books, picture books, and books of oral histories. There was a good administrative history written by a National Park Service historian in the 1970s, but I felt that there was a need for a solid work of narrative history that would explain what went on at Ellis Island and--even more importantly--why.

I also want to "de-mythologize" the place a bit. Some people have very romantic views of the island and others have a vision of it as a place of horrors. The real history, I think, is more complicated.

I see American Passage as a biography of a place, a small obscure island in New York Harbor that played an important role in the lives of millions of immigrants to the United States. But I wanted to go beyond the immigrants and also discuss the people who worked there and tie the events at Ellis Island to a larger debate that Americans were having about immigration.

I will try to answer your questions in future postings. I will also try to make comments on some of Suzanne's wonderful annotations of American Passage. She has really done a great job with this and I can't thank her enough for her efforts.

--posted by Vincent Cannato

A Story of Modern-Day Slavery

2010-08-27T08:30:00.001-04:00

A New York Times article from June 23, 2010, tells a story of modern-day exploitation of immigrants. Jose Gutierrez was 15 when he was lured to the United States from Mexico with promises of employment. He and over 50 workers like him were held as prisoners, locked into houses at night. They worked as peddlers, selling trinkets at airports and in the subway for 12 to 16 hours a day. Their bosses took everything they earned. All of the peddlers were deaf. “We were like slaves . . . We couldn’t talk to the cops,” he says in the article. He knew only Mexican sign language.

Two of the peddlers managed to compose a letter and take it to a precinct station house in Queens. The police raided the homes where the workers were held and arrested the people holding them on charges that included slavery and smuggling.

Mr. Gutierrez was 17 years old at the time of his release and although in the U.S. illegally, he and the others were not deported. They were all given permission to work. He is one of the lucky ones; his story has an uplifting ending.

There is an Ellis Island connection to this story. Today Jose Gutierrez works as a janitor at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. One of his jobs is dusting the globe that shows the journeys of immigrants to America.

Read Jose Gutierrez’s story in the New York Times, "Descent Into Slavery, and a Ladder to Another Life".

Chapter 13 - Moral Turpitude

2010-08-26T13:01:00.002-04:00

The Adulterous Playwright
I have to admit that in my first reading of American Passage I found this chapter a bit strange. The second time I read it, I found it funny. I don’t mean to suggest that prostitution, crime and sexual slavery are funny; however, there are some amusing anecdotes in this chapter. One is the story of Vera, Countess of Cathcart, who came to the U.S. hoping to find fame on Broadway. Because of her adulterous affair with the Earl of Craven, she was initially denied entry at Ellis Island. The Earl, her companion in adultery, had been allowed to enter the country, leading Vera to make the charge of a “pernicious sexual double standard.” (page 262)

As a result of her complaints and appeals by her lawyer she was finally allowed to land and stay in the U.S. as long as she wished, but she did not achieve her goal. The play she wrote about her detention on Ellis Island, "Who Shall Judge?" was a resounding flop. Vera remarked to reporters that “her treatment at Ellis Island was kind and generous when compared to what she received from critics.” (page 264)

Confusing Term
In this chapter Cannato again makes a strong case about the unclear and ambiguous terminology used in immigration law. This vagueness left officials at immigration stations in charge of deciding who should be labeled “likely to become a public charge” or “morally unfit.”

Exactly what types of behavior could be labeled “moral turpitude?”
There was definitely a double standard, since it was mainly women who were targeted for examination, including physical exams, although Cannato gives examples of men who were ordered excluded or deported for living with or bringing into the country women who were not their wives. There is also the case of Julius Rosen, deported for being a bigamist.

The Strutting Dictator
Then there is Cipriano Castro, the colorful and feisty deposed military dictator of Venezuela. In his home country he had been implicated in the execution of General Paredes, a rebel leader opposed to Castro, and so was denied the right to land in the U.S. Although Castro neither admitted nor denied having a role in the death of Paredes, a board of special inquiry determined that “his refusal to answer questions, along with his manner and demeanor, constituted an admission to the crime of killing Paredes and therefore a crime of moral turpitude.” (page 271) A federal judge ruled against immigration officials, and Castro was allowed into the U.S. After living in exile for a while, he and his wife returned to the U.S. and the controversy over his admission to the U.S. was repeated.

Lured to Lives of Shame
More sobering than the stories of Cathcart and Castro are the cases of young women brought to America with promises of employment who their sponsors tried to force into prostitution. However, officials believed that most women who joined the “oldest profession” did so voluntarily.

There was also a large gray area of men and women who had premarital or extra-marital relations. Was it reasonable to charge them with moral turpitude?

White Slavery
This was the term used at that time for the trafficking of women and children for sexual purposes. Its existence was real, and Cannato gives Jeanne Rondez, a Swiss girl, as an example. Jeanne was brought to the U.S., she believed, to work as a servant but was forced into prostitution. Her arrest for that crime ultimately led to her escape from her ordeal and she was able to turn her life around.

Cannato writes about society’s interest in white slavery and the Dillingham Commission’s investigation into the subject. Their report denounced the “importation and harboring of alien women and girls for immoral purpose and the practice of prostitution” as “the most pitiful and the most revolting phase of the immigration question.” The report concluded that “the majority of women and girls who are induced to enter this country for immoral purposes have already entered the life at home.” (page 283)

Human Trafficking Today
Certainly sexual exploitation of women and children has existed for a long time and remains an important human rights issue. Here are the websites of some of the organizations working to bring attention and remediation to this problem.

United Nations

Inter-American Commission for Women

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women

Interpol

Chapter 12 - Intelligence

2010-08-23T08:30:00.000-04:00

I found this chapter truly hair-raising. The theme of the chapter is the classification and labeling of immigrants based on intelligence. Cannato describes the ways people were classified, and the tests used. The fact that the reliability of the tests was questionable did not seem to matter to officials. The immigrants were in a way subjects in a giant experiment. But this was no innocent experiment, because we are reminded once again that people’s lives were at stake.

The chapter opens with the heartwrenching story of the Zitello family. Salvatore, the father, had been living and working in Ohio and had earned enough to bring his wife and five children to America. Their eldest daughter, Gemma, was judged an imbecile. The wife and children were held at Ellis Island because two of the children were ill. One of the children died there. Salvatore was finally able to take his wife and surviving children to Ohio, but Gemma had to stay on Ellis Island. Because of the war, no one could be shipped back to Europe. Salvatore wrote heartfelt and articulate letters to officials and even to the president. He offered to put up a bond insuring that he would support Gemma so she would not become a ward of the state. All of his efforts were in vain.

Intelligence Tests
Canato states that more people were rejected for mental illness than for low intelligence. He profiles Dr. Thomas Salmon, one of three doctors in charge of determining the mental fitness of immigrants, in spite of his lack of training in psychiatry. The doctors chalked an “X” on the coats of individuals who in their judgment warranted further inspection. The choices were based on observation of the immigrants’ expression and demeanor. A list of the some of the characteristics that raised suspicion is on page 242.

The Immigration Act of 1907 added “feebleminded” and “imbeciles” to the list of immigrants who should be excluded.

Cannato describes the Binet test, developed in France to test the I.Q. of French schoolchildren and its use on immigrants, some of whom had never been to school.

Dr. Goddard Comes Forward
Dr. Henry Goddard was director of a school for feebleminded children in New Jersey. He set out to define terms used to describe the mentally challenged. Among those used were “idiot,” “imbecile” and “moron,” words that are not used today.

Cannato goes into some detail about eugenics, which at the time was considered a scientific study. I think today we would call it “pseudo-science.”

The 2nd edition of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines eugenics as “the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).”

Mixed in with the scientific terminology used by doctors and biologists in this chapter are statements about “less desirable races,” “bad stock” and “missing links.”

It was puzzling to me why officials at Ellis Island allowed Henry Goddard to essentially make Ellis Island a laboratory for his questionable testing methods.

To give Goddard credit, he later questioned his own methodology and the results of his own study, pointing out that the percentage of people labeled as having low intelligence seemed unreasonably high. Cannato says that Goddard had not begun his work with the intention of demonstrating a connection between immigrants and feeblemindedness.

We are introduced to Dr. Howard Knox who, despite his belief that feebleminded immigrants could “start a line of defectives whose progeny, like the brook, will go on forever, branching off here in an imbecile and there in an epileptic” (page 253), had the common sense to recognize that immigrants arriving “after ten days of sea-sickness, fatigue and excitement” were disoriented and tired and could not be expected to perform their best on tests. (page 255)

I found it difficult to read this chapter. In my opinion some anti-immigrationists hoped to use the supposedlly scientific tests and examinations to “prove” the inferiority of immigrants. It seems as though they were often used in an attempt to justify long-standing racial and ethnic prejudices. With everything that is known in the 21st century about mental illness and disabilities, it comes across as primitive, not to mention offensive.

Movie Review

2010-08-20T11:53:00.006-04:00

Golden Door
Two men climb barefoot to the top of a rocky hill. At the foot of the cross on the summit, they ask God what to do - should they stay or leave for America. Salvatore Mancuso, handsome and dignified, decides that his family should leave the barren rocky Sicilian hills, their village and the culture and neighbors they have always known. He travels with his mother and his brothers. The villagers give them shoes, an item of clothing they don’t normally wear, hats, coats and cloaks. Italian director Emanuele Crialese’s film is an odd mix of realism and surrealism. Salvatore dreams about giant carrots and coins falling from the sky and about swimming in a river of milk (one of the stories told about America is that California is flowing with rivers of milk). These peasants are illiterate and uneducated, and perhaps they are not the type of immigrant William Williams and Prescott Hall wanted to see coming through the gates of Ellis Island, but they are the people who built modern America, and it’s evident that they are intelligent, tough and hard-working. The cinematography is gorgeous and there are many gripping scenes. I was struck by the scene when the ship in which Salvatore and his family are sailing to America pulls away from the dock, and the group of people on the deck separates from the crowd left on shore. There is a moment of total and absolute silence, which conveys the emotions they all must have felt. I’ve never seen a movie that so viscerally portrays the living hell that steerage passage must have been. It’s dark, airless and crowded, and on this journey there is a terrifying storm. Another, very poignant, scene shows the immigrants preparing to land at Ellis Island. The women stand in a line with one woman facing the back of the person in front of her. They are combing and arranging their shipmates’ hair. The men shave each other, and some of them begin to sing a plaintive, mournful song. The movie was shot in Buenos Aires, not New York. The director did a good job simulating Ellis Island, although, having been there, I knew it was not the immigration museum when I saw them walking across a black-and-white tiled floor. Some of the examinations the immigrants undergo seem accurate, such as the eye test, and they are asked math questions (how many total legs do a pig, a goat and a chicken have?), and they are given a board with wooden blocks they have to fit together. However, they seem to spend a long time at Ellis Island. In the movie it looks as though all the immigrants have to stay overnight, not just those singled out for further inspection. That seems inaccurate to me, according to the information I’ve read. However, the movie is fiction, not a documentary, and I think the director wanted to show the ordeal immigrants had to undergo. I’ve talked to several people who had a parent or grandparent who came through Ellis Island. Many of them say that their relative never talked about the experience. This movie suggests why.
Golden Door Movie Trailer

Conclusion of Chapter 11

2010-08-19T08:30:00.000-04:00

Congress Acts!
Of course I’m being facetious. Congress did not act. They set up yet another commission to do yet another study and issue yet another report.

The Dillingham Commission report, released in 1911, weighed in at 29,000 pages in 41 volumes and cost a million dollars. The chief recommendation that came out of the report was a literacy test.

After all of the effort, expense and time expended compiling the report, President Taft vetoed the literacy bill passed by Congress that came out of the Commission’s recommendations.

New Leadership
Taft moves off the scene. From all I’ve read about him, he seems to have been an unremarkable, unpopular and unsuccessful president. Roosevelt had hand-picked Taft to be his successor, but later regretted it.

Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated in 1913. William Williams resigned his Ellis Island post the same year. Wilson did not appoint a successor, so Williams’ deputy, Byron Uhl, took charge.

Wilson restructured his cabinet. He split the Commerce and Labor Department into two separate cabinet posts. The Bureau and Immigration and Naturalization was now under the supervision of the secretary of the Labor Department, with William B. Wilson as head.

Judged Mentally Unfit
This chapter ends by scrolling back to 1910 and the case of the Pocziwa family from Russia. The father, Benjamin, had come to America alone, earned enough to buy his own store and pay passage for his wife and two children. Lipe, the older child, was labeled an imbecile and ordered deported, even though his mother and sister would be permitted to enter the U.S. The family appealed, describing Lipe as “shy and frightened.” President Taft weighed in but waffled, at first saying the child should not be deported, but later reversing his opinion. This case introduces the subject of chapter 12, the judging and labeling of immigrants.

What’s your opinion about Lipe’s case? Did it matter whether he was “shy and frightened” or “an imbecile?” Was the decision appropriate?

What do you think about William Williams’s statements about feebleminded immigrants, quoted on page 237?

Chapter 11 - Czar William

2010-08-18T16:04:00.002-04:00

The Press and Anti-Williams Propaganda
This chapter continues the examination of the controversy over Williams’s “reign” at Ellis Island.

The foreign language and Hearst newspapers used inflammatory language in writing about Williams. They described the “tyranny” at Ellis Island, inhuman practices that were a “blot upon civilization” and characterized Williams as a brutal authoritarian and the officials as inquisitors.

No matter how heated the rhetoric, Williams was unbending and firm in his insistence that he was doing his job and enforcing the law. Taft did not waver in his support of Williams.

“We are so fond of Germans”
Williams was surprised at the hostility aimed at him from German-American groups, as was Charles Nagel, since German immigrants were considered even by immigration restrictionists a nationality that assimilated easily, and their “Teutonic blood was seen as compatible with that of Anglo-Saxons.” (page 220) Less than 1% of arriving German immigrants were excluded, and Nagel thought the Germans and the Jews fared better than other groups.

Williams attributed the attacks on him to the influence of the German-owned steamship companies, who wanted to transport as many immigrants as possible. They also wanted to avoid the expense of shipping excluded immigrants back to Europe.

The Numbers Change
We learn that between 1907 and 1909, less than 1% of all immigrants arriving at Ellis Island were excluded, but in 1910, Williams’s first full year in office, exclusions rose to 1.8%. “Immigrants faced tougher scrutiny at Ellis Island than at any other major inspection station, with the exception of those along the Mexican and Canadian borders.” (page 221)

Immigrants admitted to the United States could be deported within three years of their arrivals for any of the reasons listed on page 221. Deportations steadily increased under Williams’s oversight.

Cannato makes two important points on page 221, which in my opinion are two major themes of the Ellis Island story.

Even with the stricter enforcement of the law and increasing number of deportations . . . over 98 percent of all who arrived at Ellis Island were eventually admitted. This speaks to the powerful legal, political, social, economic, and ideological consensus that allowed America to accept millions of new immigrants despite the grumbling of those made uneasy by the disruptions that this human wave brought.

The second is that “Every exclusion was a personal tragedy.” Two examples of this were the cases of Aron Mosberg who arrived from Galicia to join his mother. He was ordered deported because of “poor physique.” Emilia Czurylo had traveled with her mother and brother to join her father in Chicago. Both children were ill when they arrived at Ellis Island and the three had to stay there for medical treatment. Emilia died of her illness, and her grieving father wrote to William Williams, “You are the murderer of my child, Emilia.” (page 233)

Although the tabloid-style newspaper headlines seem overblown (“A Victim of the Murderous Acts on Ellis Island” and “Son Torn from His Mother’s Arms”), these are truly sad stories.

Movie Review - Hester Street

2010-08-13T14:55:00.003-04:00

The 1975 movie Hester Street directed by Joan Micklin Silver is about Jewish immigrants and their lives in New York. Handsome, charming Jake left Russia and has been working in a sweatshop sewing clothes. He is able to afford a decent apartment, much better than the cramped and insalubrious tenements seen in the photos of Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis. In the evenings he meets young women at the “Dancing Academy”. One of these is Mamie who, like Jake, has become Americanized in her dress, speech and outlook. Jake works hard and earns enough to bring his wife Gitl and their son to New York. In one scene, Jake goes to Ellis Island to help his wife through immigration and bring her to Manhattan. Although it’s not filmed at the real Ellis Island, it recreates the confusion and clamor of people coming to meet their newly-arrived relatives. “For what purpose are you bringing this woman into the country?” asks the immigration official with a suggestive sneer. “For the purpose that she is my wife,” Jake answers angrily. Jake wants his family to be Americans. “Look what a place is America,” he says, “Here a Jew can be a mensch. Give a look on me - am I a Jew or a Gentile?” he asks Gitl and Mr. Bernstein, their boarder. “I’m an American, a Yankee, that’s what I am,” he insists. Their son Yossele becomes “Joey,” and he criticizes his wife for wearing the stiff wigs that Orthodox Jewish women wore to cover their hair. It’s a touching story of immigration and assimilation and the conflicts it causes within families; also a look at immigrant life in the Lower East Side of New York in the early part of the 20th century, with its crowded streets and peddlars. One of the extras in the DVD is an excerpt from the documentary TV series Heritage: Civilization and the Jews hosted by Abba Eban, which aired in 1984. The clip has film footage of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island and being processed. Although the film is fiction, it presents a realistic picture of what life was like for many immigrants. I highly recommend it.

Chapter 10 - Likely to Become a Public Charge

2010-08-11T14:43:00.004-04:00

William Williams Returns
William Howard Taft succeeded Roosevelt as president. Watchorn resigned his post, since personal attacks on him and accusations of bad management at Ellis Island made it unlikely that Taft would keep him on. Taft gave Oscar Straus the post of ambassador to Turkey, and with those two out of the way, he approached William Williams to return to head the Ellis Island station. Williams accepted the offer. Taft and Williams were both graduates of Yale.

Although Williams insisted he was not opposed to immigration, he wrote an article in which he used terms such as “unintelligent; of low vitality; almost, but not quite poverty stricken” to refer to immigrants and questioned whether these “newer,” meaning southern and eastern European, immigrants could be assimilated into American society.

“Likely to become a public charge”
Williams knew he could not exclude immigrants based on their race (except for the Chinese), religion or ethnicity, but he was able to take advantage of the vague wording of the immigration laws to keep out what he thought were “low-grade immigrants and riff-raff.” Determined to tighten restrictions, inspectors used this as the reason to send back many immigrants. Between 1900 and 1907 63% of those excluded were kept out because of this clause. (page 195)

Williams also instituted a requirement that each immigrant had to have at least $25. This was not written into the law. When challenged about the monetary requirement, because it was not written in the law, Williams was forced to change it to require that immigrants have “funds adequate to their support.”

Cannato points out that having this amount of cash after having paid for their steamship tickets was, for most people, an “onerous financial burden.” (page 196)

Birthright Citizenship
Although Ellis Island is physically within the boundaries of the United States, a 1905Supreme Court ruling created what Cannato calls the “legal fiction” that it was not part of the United States. “Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island may have thought they were on American soil, but by law they had not technically crossed the border until they were officially declared ‘free to land’ by officials.” (pages 203-204). Based on this ruling, the Department of Commerce and Labor issued a ruling that children born at Ellis Island were not automatically citizens.

Here is the text of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, from the website of the National Archives.

Constitution of the United States
AMENDMENT XIV
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.
Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

What’s your opinion of the court’s ruling?

Poor Physique
Whatever your opinion of Williams, you have to admit he was determined! He used his position and the vague wording of the law to keep coming up with reasons to exclude people.

The Immigration Act of 1907 added new categories for exclusion, including having a “mental or physical defect that might affect their ability to earn a living.” (page 206) The exclusion for “poor physique” seems even vaguer than “likely to become a public charge.” Indeed, based on the cases Cannato gives as examples of individuals labeled this way, even immigration officials could not agree. Williams was not likely to give an immigrant the benefit of the doubt, but Nagel overturned some of Williams’ rulings, and in some instances those being targeted for exclusion hired lawyers who were successful in getting their clients admitted.

“You kill people without a knife . . .”
The letter of protest sent to Williams by a student, which Cannato quotes on page 198, is very poignant. “Does money make you a person?” the writer asks. He or she points out to Williams that the people who want to come to the “free America” are suffering in their homelands.

Whether or not the letter touched Williams we do not know, but it seems unlikely, given his statement in his annual report of 1911, quoted on page 214, in which he writes about the “backward races” and their “very low standards of living . . . filthy habits and . . . ignorance which passes belief.”

Chapter 9 - The Roosevelt Straddle

2010-08-06T16:59:00.004-04:00

A New Commissioner
There’s more political wrangling in this chapter as the patronage system continues to flourish. Roosevelt appoints Robert Watchorn commissioner at Ellis Island. Watchorn, who came to the U.S. at age 15 and worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, was initially hired to work at Ellis Island because of his connection to Powderly. It’s obvious from Cannato’s profile of him that Watchorn took his job seriously. Under Powderly, Watchorn had portrayed himself as a proponent of strict regulation, but now that he was in charge, he was able to speak about his faith in the “transformative power of America on European immigrants” (page 170) and his distaste for ordering deportations.

Let’s Do the Numbers - More Statistics

more people entered the U.S. in 1905 than in the years between the Jamestown settlement in Virginia (1607) and the signing of the Declaration of Independence
between 1905 and 1907 3.5 million immigrants came to America; nearly 80% passed through NY’s inspection station
in one week in April 1906 45,000 people arrived
bigger steamships could bring more people; some could hold as many as 2300 steerage passengers
less than 1% of those who arrived were excluded
1,100,735 immigrants were admitted to the U.S. in 1906 (Ellis Island processed approximately
880,000)
of those processed at Ellis Island, 7,877 were excluded, less than 1%
1907 was the peak year for immigration until 1990

Humanitarians
One theme of this chapter is a shift in the way immigration was portrayed, by the officials at Ellis Island and in the U.S. government. The reasons for this shift were the appointments Roosevelt made, first of Robert Watchorn at Ellis Island, and second of Oscar Straus, a Jewish immigrant, to a cabinet post as Secretary of Commerce and Labor, which put him in charge of immigration.

I found this chapter very engaging, mainly because of the profiles of the individuals for whom the immigrants were human beings deserving consideration and decent treatment and who worked to change the way immigrants were viewed. It brought home to me the enormous and what must have been emotionally draining responsibility given to people like Oscar Straus and Robert Watchorn. Cannato also highlights the contributions of journalists Lewis Hind and Jacob Riis. Their photographic images of immigrants were an antidote to the negative stereotypes of anti-immigrant cartoons. (page 179)

You will see many of these photographs in the immigration museum at Ellis Island.

We’re also introduced to Fiorello La Guardia, interpreter and defender of immigrants, who said that during the years he worked at Ellis Island he “never managed to become callous to mental anguish, the disappointment and the despair I witnessed almost daily.” (page 178)

A New Law
The Immigration Act of 1907 did not require a literacy test, but it did raise the head tax on immigrants to $4 per person and added to the excludable categories. The law added “feebleminded” and required the exclusion of anyone with a mental of physical defect which would “affect their ability to earn a living.” It also expanded the category of prostitution to prohibit the importation of women or girls for prostitution or “any other immoral purpose.” (page 182)

The stories of individual immigrants and immigrant families also highlight the fact that while politicians struggled to strike the right tone about immigration and while officials at the immigrant stations had to make decisions about who should be admitted, the story is ultimately about people’s lives.

Cannato points out the devastation that deportation orders caused. “Many immigrants had sold all of their possessions to come to America. Those excluded would return home broken in spirit, as well as financially ruined.” (page 174)

Roosevelt Moves On
At the end of this chapter Cannato summarizes Roosevelt’s stance toward immigration which he describes as a “straddle.” (page 190) From my reading of this chapter, it seems that, at least in his public pronouncements, Roosevelt had become more open. Perhaps his association with people such as Oscar Straus, Robert Watchorn and Jacob Riis had given him a greater understanding of what was at stake for those arriving in America.

Chapter 8 - Fighting Back

2010-08-04T08:30:00.000-04:00

Sifting Out the “Riff-Raff”
William Williams was committed to cleaning up the corruption at Ellis Island, ending mistreatment of immigrants and improving the physical condition of the immigration station. He was also committed to a rigid enforcement of immigration laws. Cannato quotes Williams as saying that he had seen “a particularly undesirable stream of immigration” in his first year in the immigration service. Despite this attitude, Williams continued to assure Roosevelt he wanted to be fair in his judgments.

This chapter reinforces what has been discussed before, the fact that the standards were “fuzzy” and the “desirable qualities” immigrants should possess were open to interpretation. Consider the case of the family of eight from eastern Europe who arrived at Ellis Island. The father of the family said he would provide for his family; they did not want much, just one room to sleep in. While you might think this attitude would recommend them as being hardworking and undemanding, they were judged undesirable for having too narrow aspirations and sent back to Russia. (pages 161-162)

Business Interests
Business needed workers. The immigrants who arrived at the beginning of Williams’ tenure at Ellis Island were “raw labor.” “They were mostly young, unskilled, illiterate males with little money but the necessary muscle and brawn to run the country’s mills, factories, and powerhouses and build the subways and skyscrapers.” (pages 153-154)

Williams made it clear that he preferred a “finer sieve” to keep out “the worst riff-raff of Europe” (page 153), even though the country was going through a period of manic industrialization and businesses needed laborers. This was another ongoing point of conflict.

Public Opinion
Cannato makes an interesting point on page 159, where he talks about a “broad American consensus toward immigration.” He points out that there were no public opinion polls at the beginning of the 20th century. He judges the consensus, “as witnessed through immigration policy and elite opinion” as supporting “some kind of regulation and selection of immigrants, while upholding the nation’s traditional views on the benefits of good immigrants.”

We live in an era when beliefs and opinions are aired constantly in the media and on the Internet, and we are barraged with statistics from polls. In your opinion, does this outpouring of opinion necessarily clarify pressing issues, including that of immigration?

Williams Resigns
The chapter ends with William Williams’ resignation. Williams wanted to get rid of Murray, who as you will remember got his job because he was Roosevelt’s crony. Although Roosevelt was willing to get rid of Murray, he would not appoint the man Williams put forward to replace him. Williams resigned because he could not get his way and returned to his Wall Street law practice. He left a mixed record of service. While many criticized his strict enforcement of the regulations, some immigration defenders praised Williams for improving the efficiency of the immigration station and getting rid of many abuses.

Chapter 7 – Cleaning House

2010-08-02T17:15:00.003-04:00

Anarchism!
President McKinley was assassinated on September 6, 1901, by a man the press claimed was an anarchist. Because he had a Polish surname, Cannato says the murder “reinforced the connection between foreignness, criminality, and radicalism.” (page 127) Ironically, Leon Czolgosz was born in Michigan, the son of Polish Catholics. Was the media trying to scapegoat immigrants by ignoring the fact that the author of the crime was an American?

Two years later Congress added anarchism to the list of exclusions, along with prostitution, epilepsy and begging. (page 128)

Roosevelt’s Presidency
Much of this chapter is an assessment of Theodore Roosevelt, who became president as a result of McKinley’s assassination. Roosevelt cast his eagle eye on the immigration service. He had heard reports of abuse and corruption and about the feud between Powderly and McSweeney.

Cannato examines Theodore Roosevelt’s attitude toward immigrants and his attempts to reform the service. Generally speaking, he was in favor of welcoming immigrants, as long as they assimilated. (page 129)

Roosevelt made a clean sweep of the top officials at Ellis Island.

Like the previous chapter, this one highlights the infighting and misdeeds that interfered with the smooth running of the immigration station. While they should have been concentrating on assisting immigrants and following the regulations, some workers were intent on holding on to patronage jobs and taking advantage of the system.

A New Direction
William Williams, a staunch Republican, a Yale man and a lawyer, was tapped by Roosevelt to run the Ellis Island immigration station. Williams made many changes, including improvements in the appearance of the facility, such as landscaping the grounds and erecting a new steel canopy with a glass roof at the entrance to the main building.

Williams vowed to get rid of corruption. He fired employees who had been singled out in the Treasury Department report and threatened to dismiss any worker who did not treat immigrants with kindness and consideration.

End of Patronage?
Roosevelt had vowed to clean house, but he circumvented civil service rules to appoint John Murray as successor to McSweeney. Murray, who had emigrated from Ireland as a child, was rewarded for his loyalty to Roosevelt, whom he had nominated for a seat in the New York Assembly when Roosevelt was 23 years old. (page 137) In some of his appointments, such as that of Murray, Roosevelt perpetuated the patronage system. It was politics as usual.

Deported
The chapter ends with the 1903 case of John Turner, a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Turner, who was British, was in the U.S. to give a series of lectures. He was arrested and held at Ellis Island, accused of “espousing anarchist beliefs.” The famous lawyer Clarence Darrow took up Turner’s defense. Despite Darrow’s argument that Turner’s detention and expulsion violated the First Amendment right to free speech, the Court ruled that since Turner was not a citizen, he was not entitled to the protections granted in the Constitution. The validity of administrative hearings for non-citizens at Ellis Island was upheld.

Chapter 6 - Feud

2010-07-31T10:00:00.002-04:00

Fire!
Ellis Island’s buildings burned in 1897, along with immigration records dating back to the Castle Garden period. The immigration service had to operate from the Barge Office on the Battery.

Most of this chapter is devoted to a detailed account of how the “immigration service would become mired in a swamp of bureaucratic pettiness and personal vendettas that showed the limits of patronage politics.” (page 109)

Edward F. McSweeney, a Democract and assistant commissioner at Ellis Island, and his nemesis Terence V. Powderly, a Republican, who was appointed by President McKinley to run the immigration service, are the main actors in this highly-charged drama.

We learn that although immigration regulation was a vital government service, the conduct of the officials in charge was not always honorable. Partisan squabbling, accusations of unethical conduct interfered with the smooth running of Ellis Island.

A report commissioned by the Secretary of the Treasury Department collected testimony about the misdeeds of immigration officials, including taking bribes and sexually molesting women.

New Building
We also learn about the opening of the new facilities on Ellis Island in December 1900. When we are on Ellis Island you will see the beautifully restored main building, which is the only part of the complex open to the public. The Immigration Museum is housed in the building and has an interesting exhibit about the planning and construction of the facilities.

The commission to design the immigration station was competitive and was awarded to architects Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Boring. Tilton was born in New York City in 1861, studied for three years at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, after which he returned to New York and formed a partnership with William A. Boring. The Ellis Island immigration station was their first important commission. The firm’s design won a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition “largely because of its efficient solution of this complicated problem,” according to the Dictionary of American Biography. I was interested to learn that Tilton became known for designing public library buildings “and the modern public library form is in no small measure due to his logical analysis of library problems.”

William Alciphron Boring, born in Carlinville, Illinois, in 1859, also enrolled at the École des Beaux Arts, although he did not complete his architecture studies there. After his partnership with Tilton was dissolved, he designed several apartment houses on Park Avenue and the town of Bogalusa, Louisiana. He became a professor and later Dean of the School of Architecture of Columbia University.

Excluded

2010-07-30T08:30:00.001-04:00

Cannato has mentioned the situation of the Chinese earlier in the book, when he mentioned the Chinese Exclusion Act passed by congress in 1882, and he brings it up again in this chapter.

A recent article in the Boston Globe about the reopening of the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay describes the treatment of Chinese arriving in the United States as an “ugly, oft-forgotten chapter of US immigration history.” Chinese who arrived at Angel Island between 1910 and 1940 were separated from other immigrants, detained in barbed-wire enclosed bunkhouses and interrogated. The site was established as a state monument after Chinese poems carved into the walls of the barracks were discovered.

Angel Island Immigration Station

The Museum of Chinese in America opened in New York City in September 2009. The museum’s main exhibition, “With a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America” gives a timeline and overview of Chinese immigration to the U.S.

Museum of Chinese in America (New York)

Read the entire Boston Globe article.

Conclusion of Chapter 4 and Chapter 5

2010-07-29T11:25:00.003-04:00

Ethnic Stereotypes and Literacy

Chapter 4 concludes with the alarm sounded by some, including Henry Cabot Lodge, over immigration “of a kind which we are better without.” (page 92) Immigrants from Russia and Italy were stereotyped in ugly terms. New York Times writers did not hesitate to indulge in these stereotypes, describing southern Italians as “bravos and cutthroats,” while the Boston Globe asked “Are Italians a Menace?” (page 93)

What part did stereotyping play in the anti-immigrant movement?

Following an economic depression in the 1890’s, the number of immigrants arriving in New York decreased, while detentions and deportations increased.

The theme of chapter 5, Brahmins, is the continuing conflict between pro-immigration voices and those opposed. The words of the latter, quoted in this chapter, indicate that they were fearful. There is almost a hysterical tone in some of their statements.

Three of these Boston Brahmins formed the Immigration Resistance League (IRL). Although it never gained a huge following, the group’s members did seek to influence not only public opinion but also public policy. I’d like to focus on their push for a literacy test for immigrants.

Did the proponents of a literacy test have a valid point? Isn’t a literate population vital to a democracy?

The literacy test debate raises memories of literacy tests citizens in southern states were required to pass in order to vote. This was one of the ploys used to deny African-Americans their rights. A provision of Mississippi’s revised constitution in 1890 required eligible voters to pass a literacy test before they could cast a ballot. In his excellent book American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow, author Jerrold M. Packard explains that in order not to disenfranchise white voters “…the registrar of voters in each polling place, a man guaranteed to be white, was empowered to say whether a given eligible voter’s answers to questions on the literacy test - questions that usually pertained to the meaning of the state constitution - passed muster. White answers always did. Black answers almost never did.”

Appeals to the federal government to intervene were ignored, and other southern states followed Mississippi’s lead, passing similar requirements.

While I realize that this was a different situation, where citizens eligible to vote were denied their rights, while immigrants were not citizens, it made me question whether a literacy test can ever be truly “race- and ethnicity-neutral” (page 105).

In 1897 Congress passed a bill requiring a literacy test for immigrants, but President Cleveland vetoed it; Congress was unable to override it. In his veto message the president supported immigration. Cannato quotes from it on pages 105 and 106.

Chapter 4 - Peril at the Portals

2010-07-28T08:30:00.002-04:00

Several unfortunate Jewish passengers from the Massilia, which arrived from Marseilles in 1892, brought typhus with them into port. They had contracted the disease in Turkey. The treatment of the infected passengers was controversial, and the threat of an epidemic caused panic.

Senator William Eaton Chandler of New Hampshire, head of the Senate Immigration Committee and an opponent of immigration, makes an appearance in this chapter.

There was much controversy over “pauperism.” Wasn’t poverty one of the chief reasons driving people to leave their native countries? Was it reasonable to expect them to have cash when they arrived? What do you think of the debates described in this chapter? How could immigration officials objectively judge who might become a “public charge?”

Another new immigration bill was passed in 1893.

Another theme treated in this chapter is the dissatisfaction of some over the power that rested in the hands of federal officials who oversaw the immigration process.

A New Crisis
A worldwide cholera outbreak in 1892 raised new fears of an epidemic. Ships arriving from Europe were quarantined.

In 1893 Senator Chandler introduced a bill that would suspend all immigration for one year, but it did not pass. (page 87)

Boards of Inquiry
Immigrant inspectors could refer individuals to boards of special inquiry based on their answers to questions designed to determine their fitness for entry. These were not trials, but administrative hearings. People opposed to this process referred to them as “star chamber” hearings.

Although I am familiar with the term “star chamber” as referring to an unjust court, I wasn’t sure of its origin. The Oxford English Dictionary explains that the Court of the Star Chamber was “a court of civil and criminal jurisdiction in England, developed in the late 15th century from the judicial sittings of the King’s Council and abolished in 1641, noted for its arbitrary and oppressive procedure.”

Was it fair to deny immigrants a trial before they were deported?

The questioning and medical examinations the immigrants underwent are described in detail in this chapter. Did the doctors’ duties as government officials conflict with their Hippocratic Oath?

Part II - The Sifting Begins

2010-07-26T08:30:00.007-04:00

Chapter 3 - A Proper Sieve
People whose stories appear in this chapter include

Annie Moore, the first person to enter the U.S. through the Ellis Island immigration station
Colonel John B. Weber
Al Smith

In this chapter we learn about the way immigrants were processed at Ellis Island, and we are introduced to Col. John B. Weber, the first commissioner of immigration. The administration dispatched to Weber to Europe to collect data for a report on the conditions there. Government officials wanted to know why so many people were leaving Europe. What Weber found out, and the misery he witnessed, especially in the Pale of Settlement, the area in which Russian Jews were forced to live, made him a sympathetic and humane advocate of fair treatment for refugees. An immigrant himself, he believed that admitting immigrants was healthy for the United States, but he saw the need for “rigid inspection.” (page 65)

Weber and three others were asked to report. Weber and his co-author issued their findings in January 1892 (page 64). However, two other writers came to vastly different conclusions in their report, which included the opinion that immigrant aid societies encouraged “paupers and criminals” to leave their native countries and come to America (page 68); in other words, that they were ridding themselves of the dregs of society. One of them, Schulteis, discounted Weber’s accounts of the plight of Russian Jews, writing of the “’alleged’ persecutions in Russia.” (page 68)

How did these two groups reach such radically different opinions?

In the immigration museum at Ellis Island you will see this photo of “Statement of Pogroms in Russia.” This was a list of victims of pogroms, or attacks against Jews and looting of Jewish businesses and property. Pogrom is a Russian word meaning “to wreak havoc” or “attack.” The first wave of pogroms took place between 1881 and 1884, with further waves occurring between 1903 and 1906 and between 1917 and 1921. Pogroms lasted from one to several days, and were characterized by the absence of police intervention.

Castle Garden Continued

2010-07-24T08:30:00.002-04:00

Role of the Federal Government
In Henderson v. Mayor of New York, a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1875, the court asserted Congress’s constitutional power to regulate immigration. (page 42). In 2010 the same issue of jurisdiction over immigration regulation, is being raised with the case United States v. the State of Arizona.

Congress then passed the Immigration Act of 1875, which listed classes of people who could be excluded. The federal government left the enforcement and processing of immigrants to the states. (page 42)

More immigrant legislation was forthcoming in 1882. Laws imposed a head tax on immigrants and expanded the list of who could be excluded. (page 43)

Another 1885 law shows that the government was becoming increasingly focused on immigration regulation. We will see how these laws as well as political forces led to the establishment of the Ellis Island immigration station.

The deterioration of the facilities at Castle Garden was another factor that led to its closing in 1890.

“Lunatics and idiots shipped from Europe”
The categories of undesirable immigrations were expanded yet again in the 1891 Immigration Act. Do these categories seem reasonable to you?

Cannato remarks on page 54 that “Castle Garden has long since receded from the national memory.” Were you aware of Castle Island’s role in immigration history before reading American Passage? Perhaps some of you have family members who entered at Castle Garden. If you do, please tell us their stories.

Acceptance and Regulation

2010-07-23T08:30:00.003-04:00

Cannato points out in this chapter that immigrants were generally welcomed to the United States as workers and to settle the country. In spite of this general attitude of welcome, the federal government was not interested in regulating immigration, and it was left to the New York legislature to oversee the admittance of those arriving at the port of New York. (pages 34-35)

Immigration and Growing Urbanization
In chapter 2 we get statistics about population changes resulting from increased numbers of immigrants:

between 1820 and 1839 about 25,000 per year came to New York
in the 1840’s approximately 1.2 million came through New York
about three-quarters of immigrants to American came through New York
Manhattan’s population in 1850 was slightly over half a million
nearly 3 million immigrants landed in the United States between 1845 and 1850
between 1840 and 1850 the population of Manhattan increased by 65%
by 1855 over one-half of the city’s 629,904 residents were immigrants and over one-quarter had come from Ireland
between 1870 and 1900 the population of the United States had almost doubled
the country’s GNP had increased sixfold
between 1860 and 1910 number of Americans living in cities rose from 6 million (20% of the population) to 44 million (40% of the population)
“immigrants and their children would soon account for nearly 80 percent of the population of cities like New York and Chicago.”

Cannato quotes critics of immigration and urbanization, who feared that it would bring the end of the American republic and the development of a society like Europe: “corrupt, overindulgent, class-ridden, contemptuous of republican government, and doomed to revolution.” (page 39) The newcomers were compared to the barbarians who brought about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. (page 41) How do those arguments seem to you now, in 2010? I found the comment of “a writer in 1887” that “we are beginning to feel crowded” (pages 39-40) especially amusing. Imagine if that writer were to visit New York City today!

Cannato reminds us that there were other views on immigration, voiced by writers who pointed out that America was already a nation of immigrants. In one writer’s opinion immigration is as “natural in its movements as the flow of the tides . . . a movement to restore the human equilibrium of the globe.” (page 40) Another pointed out that Americans had already become a “composite people.” (page 41)

Chapter 2 - Castle Garden

2010-07-21T08:30:00.001-04:00

This chapter deserves a careful reading. In it, Cannato introduces the book’s central themes: attitudes toward immigrants and their treatment, the changing demographics of the United States, myths about immigration, laws governing immigration and the role of the federal government and partisan politics in its oversight.

Anti-Immigrant Protest
There is a lively description of the “indignation meetings” opposing the opening of Castle Garden as an immigration depot. Many of those who gathered to warn about the influx of “sickly and loathsome paupers” bringing “all the vices of foreign prisons and workhouses” to the city had a personal agenda. Cannato points out that protest organizers’ complaints were not necessarily about the immigrants but were sometimes more about their own self-interest. For some it meant a loss of income. On pages 33 and 34 he lists some of the ways the “immigrant runners” organized by crooks such as Isaiah Rynders cheated new arrivals.

Other complaints and fears about the opening of the immigrant depot at Castle Garden are described on page 36.

Fraud and Scams
Have you ever been the victim of a scam while visiting New York? I have, I’m embarrassed to admit, but “live and learn.” If you want to read an entertaining and often grisly chronicle of crime and criminals in New York, pick up Belgian-born author Luc Santé’s Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (FSG, 1991). Much of Santé’s book is about the Manhattan of the immigrants and includes fascinating photographs of New York scenes taken in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The chapter entitled “Home” gives a harrowing description of life in the tenements. There’s also a chapter on the social reformers who worked to improve immigrants’ lives.

In his notes on Chapter 2, Cannato also mentions Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster by T.J. English (Regan Books, 2005), another entertaining tale of the underside of New York life.

History of the Island and Its Owners

2010-07-19T08:30:00.000-04:00

The second part of this chapter chronicles the ownership of Ellis Island, purchased by farmer and merchant Samuel Ellis, and how it came to be used by the U.S. government. Remember how recently the United States had won freedom from England, which explains the interest the government had in fortifying it.

The chapter concludes with this statistic: “Between 1820 and 1860, 3.7 million immigrants entered through the portal of New York Harbor - some 70 percent of all immigrants to the United States during that period.”

This was well before the immigration station was established at Ellis Island. How did these 3.7 million people gain entry to the United States? What government entity oversaw their arrival and admission to the country? We will find out in the next chapter.

Chapter 1 - Island

2010-07-16T08:30:00.000-04:00

Pirates and Oysters
Who knew Ellis Island had a dark and grisly past as a place of execution? In this chapter we learn facts and folklore surrounding pirate hangings on the island in the first half of the 19th century. Thousands of spectators turned out to watch the spectacle. While most of the men were violent criminals, there is also the tragic case of William Hill, a slave attempting to escape to freedom, who was convicted as a pirate.

We learn the history of some of the islands in what Cannato refers to as the New York City archipelago. Fertile oyster beds flourished in this area until the 20th century, when they were destroyed by pollution. Mark Kurlansky has written an account of the oyster industry and its importance in New York history in his book The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell.

Read the New York Times review of Kurlansky’s book.

Links to Ellis Island

2010-07-14T13:00:00.001-04:00

Are you one of the 100 million Americans who can trace an ancestor back to Ellis Island? Visit the American Family Immigration History Center to find out.

National Park Service Ellis Island Website

More About the Introduction

2010-07-12T08:30:00.003-04:00

In the introduction, Vincent writes about the standards used to judge people seeking to enter, which raises questions of judgment and fairness. The law listed the categories that made an immigrant undesirable, but as he points out, the interpretation of those laws was left up to officials (page 7).

What do you think about the categories by which people were made excludable?
How was it possible for officials to make an objective decision about who was "likely to become a public charge?"
How is it humanly possible to fairly "separate the desirable from the undesirable"? (page 6)
What do you think about the reasons and labels used to exclude immigrants?
Do you agree with Vincent Cannato’s statement (page 7), "We should be careful not to judge the past by modern-day standards?"
"Is everyone in the world entitled to enter America?" is another question he poses (page 8).
Does the sifting out of undesirables contradict the principles on which the United States was founded, the main one being that "all men are created equal?"

I found the comments of Dr. Allan McLaughlin, quoted on page 10, interesting.

The fact that most surprised me was that despite all of the reasons for which immigrants could be excluded, less than 2% of those who came through Ellis Island were sent back to their home countries (page 11). With all of the stories of the dread with which immigrants faced their examination, I would have expected the figure to be higher.

Ellis Island: Open Door or Sieve?

2010-07-09T20:30:00.003-04:00

Introduction to American Passage
In the introduction, Vincent Cannato introduces the main themes of American Passage. The stories of individual immigrants and their families with which he opens the book illustrate the hopes and fears of immigrants, the standards by which they were judged when they came to the United States, and the variety of their experiences.

American Passage made a powerful impression on me when I first read it last fall. What impresses me about the story, as Vincent Cannato tells it, is that he balances a detailed account of the laws (the bureaucratic process and those who oversaw it) with the stories of the “hundreds of thousands of living, breathing individuals” (page 15) seeking new lives in a new country. We read about the history of the island in the context of changing political and social norms, but Vincent never lets us lose sight of the fact that each and every one of the 12 million individuals admitted through Ellis Island has a story.

Share Your Immigration Stories With Us

2010-07-08T08:30:00.001-04:00

This blog is also a place to share stories about our immigrant ancestors, whether or not they came through Ellis Island. If you have a story, send it to me in an email, and we will post it on the blog. Do you have a photo of one of your family members who came to the U.S.? If you can email it, we will post it alongside your story. If the photo is not in digital form, you can bring it to the library and we will scan it.

Join the Conversation

2010-07-07T08:30:00.000-04:00

Welcome to all of you who are joining me in this exciting program!

Since we will all be reading American Passage between now and the book discussions in September and October, this blog will allow us to have an online discussion of the book between now and when we meet. Some of what we talk about here will be topics and questions we will expand on when we have our meetings in the library in September and October and on our tour of Ellis Island with Vincent Cannato.

I will post comments about the book chapter by chapter. Vincent Cannato will also contribute. If you introduce a topic or ask a question, tell us the relevant chapter and pages to which your remarks refer.

There is much to discuss in the fascinating history of this place and period. I’m sure that, like me, you will learn many things you did not know about the history of immigration at Ellis Island.