Embedded Files
In the 1870s two young brothers left Italy for America.
“We were so long on the water that we began to think we should never get to America. . . . We were all landed on an island and the bosses there said that Francisco and I must go back because we had not enough money, but a man named Bartolo came up and told them that . . . he was our uncle and would take care of us. . . . We came to Brooklyn to a wooden house on Adams Street that was full of Italians from Naples. Bartolo had a room on the third floor and there were fifteen men in the room, all boarding with Bartolo. . . . It was very hot in the room, but we were soon asleep, for we were very tired.”
A Flood of Immigrants
Before 1865 most immigrants to the United States—except for the enslaved —came from Northern and Western Europe.
The greater part of these “old” immigrants were Protestant, spoke English, and blended easily into American society.
After the Civil War, even greater numbers of immigrants made the Immigrant’s journey to the United States. The tide of new comers reached a peak in 1907 when nearly 1.3 million people came to America.
Old Immigration
The arrival of European immigrants introduced an ethnic diversity through the eastern parts of the united states as immigrants came in waves native Americans and native American citizens would soon notice distinct differences in ethnicities and age groups among the population of European immigrant waves.
The so-called “old immigration” described the group European immigrants who “came mainly from Northern and Central Europe (Germany and England) in early 1800 particularly between 1820 and 1890 they were mostly protestant” and they came in groups of families they were highly skilled, older in age, and had moderate amount of money in addition, they were quick to assimilate with the American citizens their main reason for coming was to seek settlement and escape the poverty and food scarcity due to droughts .
New Immigration
In the mid-1880s the pattern of immigration started to change. Large groups of “new” immigrants arrived from eastern and southern Europe. Greeks, Russians, Hungarians, Italians, Turks, and Poles were among the newcomers.
At the same time, the number of “old” immigrants started to decrease. By 1907 only about 20 percent of the immigrants came from northern and western Europe, while 80 percent came from southern and eastern Europe. Many of the newcomers from eastern and southern Europe were Catholics or Jews. They came impoverrished, unskilled, and illiterate also most of the immigrants from the new wave came separately as a form of smaller groups or individuals like a father and son or single men who were looking for jobs. Few spoke English. Because of this, they did not blend into American society as easily as the “old” immigrants had. Many felt like outsiders, and they clustered together in urban neighborhoods made up of people of the same nationality.
After 1900 immigration from Mexico also increased. In addition many people came to the United States from China and Japan. They, too, brought unfamiliar languages and religious beliefs and had difficulty blending into American society.
Leaving Troubles Behind
Why did so many people leave their homelands for the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s?
They were “pushed” away by difficult conditions at home and “pulled” to the United States by new opportunities.
Many people emigrated, or left their homelands, because of economic troubles.
In Italy and Hungary, overcrowding and poverty made jobs scarce. Farmers in Croatia and Serbia could not own enough land to support their families. Sweden suffered major crop failures.
New machines such as looms put many craft workers out of work. Persecution also drove people from their homelands. In some countries the government passed laws or followed policies against certain ethnic groups—minorities that spoke different languages or followed different customs from those of most people in a country. Members of these ethnic groups often emigrated to escape discrimination or unfair laws. Many Jews fled persecution in Russia in the 1880s and came to the United States. Immigrants saw the United States as a land of jobs, plentiful and affordable land, and opportunities for a better life. Although some immigrants returned to their homelands after a few years, most came to America to stay.
The Journey to America
“Emigrate” and “Immigrate”
The words emigrate and immigrate are both used of people involved in a permanent move, generally across a political boundary.
Emigrate refers to the point of departure: He emigrated from Germany (that is, left Germany).
By contrast, immigrate refers to the new location:
The promise of prosperity in the United States encouraged many people to immigrate
Immigrants often had a difficult journey to America. Many had to first travel to a seaport to board a ship. Often they traveled for hundreds of miles on foot or on horseback and through foreign countries to get to the port cities.
Then came the long ocean voyage to America—12 days across the Atlantic or several weeks across the Pacific. Immigrants usually could afford only the cheapest tickets, and they traveled in steerage—cramped, noisy quarters on the lower decks.
steerage—cramped, noisy quarters on the lower decks
Steamship companies required steerage passengers to take an antiseptic bath, have their baggage fumigated, and be examined by doctors before boarding.
The emigrants also answered questions—such as name, age, occupation, native country, and destination—for the ship’s manifest.
At the other end of the trip, Ellis Island officials would use such information to verify and group the immigrants.
Once the ship was underway, first- and second-class passengers ate meals in a dining hall and enjoyed private cabins through which fresh sea breezes could blow.
Steerage passengers, on the other hand, had food brought to them, as they traveled in the dark bowels of the ship where there was no privacy. Keeping clean was difficult, as fresh water was often available only kosher—food prepared in accordance with certain Jewish dietary laws antiseptic—germ-killing or cleaning fumigated—disinfected by smoke or fumes on deck.
“That hope to be in America was so great and so sunny, that it colored all the pain that we had during our trip,”
remembered Gertrude Yellin about her voyage in 1922.
Steerage passengers slept in narrow bunks, usually three beds across and two or three deep. Burlap-covered mattresses were filled with straw or seaweed.
During fierce North Atlantic storms, all hatches4 were sealed to prevent water from getting in, making the already stuffy air below unbearable.
Many children died when contagious illnesses, such as measles, broke out onboard ship. Their lifeless bodies were taken from their mothers’ arms and dropped into the ocean.
Throughout their 1905 voyage, Fannie Kligerman’s mother hid Fannie’s infant sister in an apron, hoping the child would stay healthy. She did. Outbreaks of seasickness also were present on every ship, keeping hundreds of passengers in their beds through most of the ocean crossing. And the lack of sanitation in steerage made cleaning up vomit impossible. As time went on, the stench of the unventilated cargo area would grow worse.
Bertha Devlin, who immigrated in 1923, recalled a particularly bad Atlantic crossing:
“One night I prayed to God that [the boat] would go down . . . I was that sick. . . . And everybody else was the same way.”
Immigrants often crowded on the deck of the ship at the end of the trip when the Statue of Liberty was sighted in New York Harbor.
Steamships made their first stop at a pier on the mainland. There, the first- and second-class passengers were free to leave the ship, with little or no hatches—coverings for the openings on the deck of a ship medical examination.
Afterward, steerage passengers were crowded onto a barge or ferry, often with standing room only, and taken to Ellis Island. On a busy day, immigrants might have to wait their turn to disembark, standing for several hours with no food or drink. The ordeal of the ocean voyage was over, but the unknowns of the Ellis Island examination process were just ahead.
The Statue of Liberty
Most European immigrants landed at New York City. After 1886 the magnificent sight of the Statue of Liberty greeted the immigrants as they sailed into New York Harbor. The statue, a gift from France, seemed to promise hope for a better life in the new country.
On the base of the statue,
the stirring words of Emma Lazarus, an American poet, welcomed immigrants from Europe:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Entering America
Bianca De Carli arrived from Italy in 1913 as a young girl. Many years later she remembered how she felt as her ship reached New York City:
“We all trembled because of the strangeness and the confusion. . . . Some were weak from no movement and exercise, and some were sick because of the smells and the unfresh air. But somehow this did not matter because we now knew it was almost over.”
Before the new arrivals could actually pass through the “golden door” to America, they had to register at government reception centers.
In the East immigrants were processed at Castle Garden, a former fort on Manhattan Island, and after 1892 at Ellis Island in New York Harbor.
Most Asian immigrants arrived in America on the West Coast and went through the processing center on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.
Examiners at the centers recorded the immigrants’ names—sometimes shortening or simplifying a name they found too difficult to write.
The examiners asked the immigrants where they came from, their occupation, and whether they had relatives in the United States. The examiners also gave health examinations. Immigrants with contagious illnesses could be refused permission to enter the United States.
Ellis Island, NYC
Ellis Island, NYC
Angel Island, Tiburon CA
Angel Island, Tiburon CA
The Immigrant Experience
@ Ellis Island
Between 1892 and 1954, most immigrants arriving in the United States passed through New York’s Ellis Island control center. For those fleeing poverty and war, the “island of tears” was also an island of hope—and the beginning of a new life.
Arrival in America
Arrival in America
Looking toward Manhattan, this 1930s photograph of Ellis Island shows the copper-domed towers of the main building, built in 1900 after the previous structure burned down.
The ferry slip can be seen cutting into the island from the right. On the near side of the ferry slip is the hospital, and in the foreground are the administration blocks.
Ellis Island was converted into an immigrant-processing center in 1892, following an 1891 law that gave the federal government control of immigration, previously in the hands of individual states. Although other cities also received immigrants, New York was the nation’s principal port of entry. During the 62 years it operated, the Ellis Island center hosted millions of immigrants on their journey to a new life. From the mid-1920s, the bulk of immigrant reception was transferred to Manhattan, and the Ellis Island center was finally closed in 1954. Following extensive restoration, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum opened in 1990.
The six-second check
The six-second check
A woman and her children are given a medical exam in this 1907 photograph. Only immigrants who had traveled in the often unsanitary conditions of third class (steerage) were subjected to the Ellis Island inspections; wealthier passengers from first and second class were presumed to not represent a health threat. Annual arrivals at Ellis Island grew from 200,000 in 1896 to 900,000 by 1905, requiring ever more doctors to perform exams. These took place after the new arrivals had deposited their luggage and undergone preliminary interviews. Although the checks were rushed, sometimes lasting only six seconds, doctors had the opportunity to observe immigrants as they climbed the stairs, identifying those who limped or suffered breathlessness. A small number would be sent to the Ellis Island hospital. Between 1896 and 1920, only a tiny proportion of immigrants were repatriated because of ill health.
New food in a new land
New food in a new land
This image of immigrants in the Ellis Island dining room was taken around 1900. Many arrivals would have had no need to eat here, as the medical check and legal interview took between three and four hours. But for those obliged to stay in the facility to resolve problems with their application, the dining room was an important focus of daily life. An assistant commissioner’s report on conditions on the island stated that on Monday, November 19, 1906, the midday meal consisted of beef stew with potatoes, bread, and “smoked or pickled herring” for Jewish arrivals. For many internees, much of the food was an early introduction to the American diet. Italian immigrant Oreste Teglia recalled her bewilderment at encountering oatmeal on Ellis Island as a child in 1916: “I didn’t know what it was ... I couldn’t get myself to eat it. So I put it on the windowsill, let the birds eat it.”
ENTERING NYC
After passing through the reception centers, most immigrants entered the United States. Where would they go? How would they live? Some had relatives or friends to stay with and to help them find jobs. Others knew no one and would have to strike out on their own.
Finding Work
An immigrant’s greatest challenge was finding work. Sometimes organizations in his or her homeland recruited workers for jobs in the United States. The organization supplied American employers with unskilled workers who worked unloading cargo or digging ditches.
Some of America’s fastest-growing industries hired immigrant workers. In the steel mills of Pittsburgh, for example, most of the common laborers in the early 1900s were immigrant men. They might work 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Many immigrants, including women and children, worked in sweatshops in the garment industry. These were dark, crowded workshops where workers made clothing. The work was repetitious and hazardous, the pay low, and the hours long.
Pauline Newman, who later became an official in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, worked in a New York sweatshop as a child. She recalled:
“We started work at seven-thirty in the morning, and during the busy season we worked until nine in the evening. They didn’t pay you any overtime and they didn’t give you anything for supper money. Sometimes they’d give you a little apple pie if you had to work very late.”
Adjusting to America
In their new homes, immigrants tried to preserve some aspects of their own cultures. At the same time, most wanted to assimilate, or become part of the American culture. These two desires sometimes came into conflict. Language highlighted the differences between generations. Many immigrant parents continued to speak their native languages. Their children spoke English at school and with friends, but they also spoke their native language at home. On the other hand, the grand children of many immigrants spoke only English. The role of immigrant women also changed in the United States, where women generally had more freedom than women in European and Asian countries. New lifestyles conflicted with traditional ways and sometimes caused family friction.
The Stench of Waste, the Stench of Crime
The Stench of Waste, the Stench of Crime
The cities stank. The air stank, the rivers stank, the people stank. Although public sewers were improving, disposing of human waste was increasingly a problem. People used private cesspools, which overflowed with a long, hard rain. Old sewage pipes dumped the waste directly into the rivers or bays. These rivers were often the very same used as water sources.
Trash collection had not yet been systemized. Trash was dumped in the streets or in the waterways. Better sewers, water purification, and trash removal were some of the most pressing problems for city leadership. As the 20th century dawned, many improvements were made, but the cities were far from sanitary.
POVERTY often breeds crime. Desperate people will often resort to theft or violence to put food on the family table when the factory wages would not suffice. Youths who dreaded a life of monotonous factory work and pauperism sometimes roamed the streets in GANGS. VICES such as gambling, and alcoholism were widespread. Gambling rendered the hope of getting rich quick. Alcoholism furnished a false means of escape. City police forces were often understaffed and underpaid, so those with wealth could buy a better slice of justice.
The glamour of American cities was real indeed. As real was the sheer destitution of its slums. Both worlds — plenty and poverty — existed side by side. As the 20th century began, the plight of the urban poor was heard by more and more reformers, and meaningful change finally arrived.
Building Communities
Most of the new immigrants were from rural areas. Because they lacked the money to buy farmland in America, however, they often settled in industrial cities. With little or no education, they usually worked as unskilled laborers. Relatives who had immigrated earlier helped new arrivals get settled, and people of the same ethnic group naturally tended to form communities. As a result neighborhoods of Jewish, Italian, Polish, Chinese, and other groups quickly developed in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and other large cities.
The immigrants sought to re-create some of the life they had left behind. The communities they established revolved around a number of traditional institutions. Most important were the houses of worship—the churches and synagogues—where worship was conducted and holidays were celebrated as they had been in their homelands. Priests and rabbis often acted as community leaders.
The immigrants published newspapers in their native languages, opened stores and theaters, and organized social clubs. Ethnic communities and institutions helped the immigrants preserve their cultural heritage.
Two viewpoints:
Should We Welcome or Prevent Immigration to Our Country? Immigrants struggled to find their place in American society.
They changed American society with customs from their cultures. Many Americans resisted these changes and warned against further immigration.
San Francisco Real Estate Circular, September 1874
The Chinese come for a season only; and, while they give their labor, they do not [spend the money they earn] in the country.
They do not come to settle or make homes . . . To compare the Chinese with even the lowest white laborers is, therefore, absurd. Our best interests are suffering of these Asiatic slaves; we are trying to make them live decently while here, and to discourage their arrival in such numbers as to drive white laborers out of the country. . .
Attorney Louis Marshall Speaks Out Against Limiting Immigration, 1924
In common with all other immigrants, those who have come from the countries sought to be tabooed [forbidden] have been industrious, and law-abiding and have made valuable contributions to our industrial, commercial and social development. . . . To say that they are not assimilable argues ignorance. The facts show that they adopt American standards of living and that they are permeated [filled] with the spirit of our institutions. It is said that they speak foreign languages, but in those foreign languages they are taught to love our Government. . . .
Louis Marshall
Nativist Movement
Assimilation was also slowed by the attitudes of many native-born Americans.
Although employers were happy to hire immigrant workers at low wages, some American-born workers resented the immigrants.
These Americans feared that the immigrants would take away their jobs or drive down everyone’s wages by accepting lower pay.
Ethnic, religious, and racial differences contributed to tensions between Americans and the new immigrants. Some Americans argued that the new immigrants—with their foreign languages, unfamiliar religions, and distinctive customs—did not fit into American society.
Learning From History Chinese immigrants
People found it easy to blame immigrants for increasing crime, unemployment, and other problems. The nativist movement, for example, had opposed immigration since the 1830s. Nativism gained strength in the late 1800s. Calls for restrictions on immigration mounted.
Nativism is the political policy of promoting or protecting the interests of native-born or indigenous people over those of immigrants, including the support of anti-immigration and immigration-restriction measures.
New Immigration Laws
Lawmakers responded quickly to the tide of anti-immigrant feeling. In 1882 Congresspassed the first law to limit immigration—the Chinese Exclusion Act. This law prohibited Chinese workers from entering the United States for 10 years. Congress extended the law in 1892 and again in 1902.
The Japanese agreed to limit the number of immigrants to the United States, while the Americans pledged fair treatment for Japanese Americans already in the United States. Other legislation affected immigrants from all nations.
An 1882 law made each immigrant pay a tax and also barred criminals from entering the country. In 1897 Congress passed a bill requiring immigrants to be able to read and write in some language.
CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT!!!!
Support for Immigrants
Despite some anti-immigrant sentiment, many Americans—including Grace Abbott and Julia Clifford Lathrop, who helped found the Immigrants’ Protective League—spoke out in support of immigration. These Americans recognized that the United States was a nation of immigrants and that the newcomers made lasting contributions to their new society.
Immigrants’ Contributions
The new immigrants supplied the country’s growing industries with the workers that were necessary for economic growth. At the same time, the new immigrants and their children—like the old immigrants before them—helped shape American life. They gave the nation its major religious groups—Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. As they became part of the society around them, they enriched that society with the customs and cultures and the language and literature of their homelands. The effects of immigration were most visible in the cities, with their fast-growing ethnic neighborhoods. The flow of immigrants was one of the factors that transformed America’s cities in the late 1800s and the early 1900s.
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