1. If your name was changed at Ellis Island
Facts from
Ellen Levine
Compliments of T. Atkins

2. What was Ellis Island?
It was an immigration
center located in New
York Harbor.

4. Millions of newcomers
passed through its
gates
and were examined by
doctors and legal
inspectors.

5. Before Ellis Island
opened, immigrants were examined at Castle Garden at the tip of Manhattan Island.

7. When was Ellis Island opened?
1892

8. At least 12 million
people passed
through Ellis Island.

9. Did all immigrants come through Ellis Island?

10. Some immigrants entered through other east coast ports
Boston
Philidelphia
Baltimore

11. Other Ports
New Orleans
Galveston
San Francisco

12. In 1907
there were 70
immigration
stations.

13. If you had the most expensive tickets, 1st or 2nd class, you were examined aboard the ship. If you passed you were free to enter the country.

14. Immigrants aboard a ship,
waiting to unload.

15. America: “The Golden Land”
Free School
Decent jobs
People ate well
Why was it called that?

16. It could take many years before you were reunited with your family
Would everyone in your
family come together?
It could take many
years before you were
reunited with
your family
Usually a father or an
older sibling would
come first. That person
would find work then
send money back for you.

17. What did people bring with them?
People brought whatever they could
carry. Some had suitcases and
trunks. Most had bundles tied
together with string. People carried
baskets, cardboard boxes, tins, and
leather sacks.

20. Many immigrants brought their
feather quilts, mattresses, and
pillows, for the steamships just
provided thin blankets

21. Some people packed fancy clothes, specially embroidered
and crotched. Sometimes people
wore layers of all their clothing
so they wouldn’t have to pack
them

22. Often they brought food for the long trip over the ocean, like smoked
sausages or hams.

23. How did people
travel to the
ships that brought
them to
America?

24. If you lived out in the country,
you often had to go to a big town
to catch a train to the port.

25. Other people from Russia or
Poland left in the dead of the
night to escape mobs that were
beating and murdering people.

26. If you had to cross into another
country before you reached your
port, you needed a special permit.

27. If you reached a
border and did not have a permit,
you might have to bribe the border
guard to let you pass.

28. The trip overland sometimes
took weeks. Finally when you
arrived at a port city, you might
have to wait a week or two,
sometimes even longer, until
the ship was ready
to depart.

29. Were you examined
before you left for
America?

30. According to a U.S. law, ship companies had to pay the return
fare for anyone who had to be
sent back from America. So,
before leaving, ship doctors
examined all passengers to see if
they had any illnesses that would
prevent them from being allowed
to enter the U.S.

31. Doctors vaccinated and disinfected all passengers. Men
and boys often had their hair very
short, and women and girls had
theirs combed very carefully to
look for lice, which carried the
deadly disease typhus.

32. The ship companies also had to prepare a manifest- a list of
information about everybody on
board the ship. Each immigrant
was assigned a number, and the
ship’s captain listed everyone’s
nationality, age, sex, destination,
and occupation.

34. if they could read and write,
They were asked
if they could read and write,
whether they were married, and how many pieces of baggage they had. The list was
given to the immigration
inspectors when the ship landed in America.

36. How long would the trip last?
If there were no bad storms
or other problems, the trip
usually took about six to
thirty-two days.

37. Where would you sleep and eat
on the ship?
1st and 2nd class had a private
cabin to sleep in, and food would
be served in a dining room.
Most immigrants were steerage.
This area was below the deck on
the lowest level of the ship.

38. Several hundred passengers
were crammed into steerage
with no fresh air. They slept in
narrow bunk-beds, sometimes
3 high.
There was 1 bath area for all of
steerage, with sink faucets that
frequently didn’t work.

40. The food was not very good.
They ate lukewarm soup, boiled
potatoes, and stringy beef.

41. Some immigrants reported all
they ate was herring, bread and
potatoes. The one good thing
about the herring is it cured
seasickness.

42. “ How can a steerage passenger remember he was a human being
when he must first pick worms
from his food…and eat in his
stuffy, stinking bunk, or in the
hot… atmosphere of a
compartment where 150 men
sleep?”

43. Would you go straight to Ellis Island when you arrived in
New York Harbor?
All the ships were stopped in
lower NY bay, where doctors
boarded. They checked
passengers for contagious
diseases.

44. There were 2 small islands in the lower bay. If you were sick,
you’d be put in a hospital on one
of them. If the doctors thought
you had been exposed to a disease,
they’d place you on the other
island for observation.

45. Further up the bay, immigration
officers would examine all 1st and
2nd class passengers. The boat
would then dock at the tip of
Manhattan and those that passed
were allowed to enter the country.
All steerage passengers went to Ellis Island, no matter what.

46. Even after arriving, frequently
they stayed on board ship for
one or more nights until barges
could take them to Ellis Island
for further examinations.

47. One passenger said,” Isn’t it strange that here we are coming
to America where there is
complete equality, but not quite
so for the newly arrived immigrants.”

48. Ellis Island was like a miniature
city. There were waiting rooms,
dormitories for over a thousand
people, restaurants, a hospital,
baggage room, post office, banks
to exchange foreign money, a
railroad ticket office, medical
and legal examination rooms, baths,
laundries, office areas for
charities, and courtrooms.

49. When the barge pulled up to the dock at Ellis Island the
first place you went was
The Great Hall to be inspected
by doctors.

51. Who examined you once you got
to Ellis Island?

52. As soon as you arrived you were
examined. They did not know it
was happening. When you
walked they watched to see if you
limped, or had difficulty
breathing.

53. Children older than 2 had to walk
on their own. All immigrants
were asked their names to see
if they could hear and speak.

55. Doctors used a finger
or a buttonhook to roll
back your eyelids to
see if you had a
contagious disease
called trachoma.

56. The walk up the stairs was called the “six-second medical”, and
then the doctors at the top
usually took two to three minutes
to examine you. All examines
together took less than 5
minutes.

57. something wrong with you?
What if they found
something wrong with you?

58. X
Possible Mental Case

59. B
Back
Problems

60. E
Problem
with eyes.

61. P
Physical
Problem or
Lungs

62. Sc
Scalp
Problems

63. L
Lameness

64. CT
Trachoma

65. If you were found sick, but
Curable you were taken to the
hospital until you were better.
If your disease was contagious
and incurable, you were put in a
special hospital until a ship could
take you home.

66. If you were marked with an “X” the doctors were uncertain that
you would be able to work. They
gave you some intelligence tests
that included math problems,
they would ask you to count
backwards, and do some puzzles.

67. Who were the inspectors?

68. Inspectors asked you between
twenty and thirty questions.
They had to decide whether you
were “clearly and beyond a doubt
entitled to land.”

69. Did you have to have money
when you arrived?

70. At first all you had to
have was ten dollars
and money for a
railroad ticket.
Later the amount raised to $25.
The rule was later dropped, but
inspectors continued to use it.

71. Did you have to have a job
waiting for you?

72. You could not have a job waiting for you. In 1885 US Congress
passed a law that said employers
could not make contracts with
immigrants to bring them to
America. Congress was afraid
that immigrants would accept
lower wages than American
workers, and take jobs form
those that already lived here.

73. You could be deported
if the inspectors
thought:

74. had committed crimes
in your old country.

75. had a job when you arrived in America
wouldn’t be able to support yourself
had certain mental or physical problems that would keep you from working

76. How long did you stay at Ellis Island? Most people were questioned,
examined, and ready to leave the
island after three to five hours.

77. If you were detained, or arrived
at night, you were served meals
in the Ellis Island restaurant.
There were 2
kitchens, 1 for
religious Jews,
and one
regular.

78. If you stayed overnight you’d
sleep either in a hospital bed or
in a dormitory. During the years
of the greatest migration to the
US, both were overcrowded.

79. Why did some immigrants change
their names?
Some were afraid their names
were too long.
Sometimes the inspectors got
confused and wrote down the
wrong thing.

82. What was the
Staircase of
Separation?

83. Whether you passed all the examinations or were detained,
you went down the staircase.
Straight ahead led to the
much-feared detention rooms
A turn to left led to the
ferry to Manhattan.
A turn to the right at the
bottom led you to the railroad
ticket office.

84. Angel Island

85. Angel Island
In 1905, construction of an Immigration Station began in the area known as China Cove.
The station was finally put into operation in 1910.
Known as "Ellis Island of the West”
Within the Immigration Service it was known as "The Guardian of the Western Gate"
Designed to control the flow of Chinese into the country, who were officially not welcome with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

86. Angel Island
Some detainees expressed their feelings in poetry that they brushed or carved onto the wooden walls of the detention center.
Others simply waited, hoping for a favorable response to their appeals, but fearing deportation.
Many of the poems that were carved into the walls of the center are still legible today.

87. Detention Center This facility was primarily a detention center.
Beginning with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a series of restrictive laws had prohibited the immigration of certain nationalities and social classes of Asians.
Although all Asians were affected, the greatest impact was on the Chinese. 

88. Processed Picture Brides
By 1920, an estimated 6,000 to 19,000 Japanese "picture brides" were processed through Angel Island.
Immigrants from other Pacific Rim countries, including Russia, Korea, the Philippines, and Japan, were detained here.
During World War I, "enemy aliens" (most of them German citizens who had been arrested on board ships in West Coast harbors) were held at the Immigration Station. These men were later transferred to permanent detention quarters in North Carolina.

90. Japanese Picture Brides Arriving at Ellis Island

91. Katherine Mauer with Asian Immigrants in Waiting Room

92. Closing Angel Island
In 1940, the government decided to abandon the Immigration Station on Angel Island.
Their decision was hastened by a fire that destroyed the administration building in August of that year.
On November 5, the last group of about 200 aliens (including about 150 Chinese) was transferred from Angel Island to temporary quarters in San Francisco.
The so-called "Chinese Exclusion Acts", which were adopted in the early 1880s, were repealed by federal action in 1943, because by that time, China was an ally of the U.S. in World War II

93. Prisoner Processing Center
In 1941, following the departure of the Immigration Service from the island, the station property was turned back to the Army, and it became the North Garrison of Fort McDowell. 
When World War II began, the old detention barracks became a Prisoner of War Processing Center, and German and Japanese prisoners were processed there before being sent to permanent camps in the interior. 

94. Compare/Contrast Angel Island and Ellis Island
What to do:
Use a Venn Diagram to compare Angel Island to Ellis Island