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Spring Semester 2000, Vol. 11, no. 1 Ellis Island:
Both Gateway and Obstacle Ellis Island, the "Plymouth Rock of the twentieth century," received over twelve million prospective immigrants between 1892 and 1954. Located in the waters between Manhattan and New Jersey, it received over twelve million prospective immigrants between 1892 and 1954. Located in the waters between Manhattan and New Jersey, it received seven thousand immigrants a day in the peak years of 1900-1914. About half of the population of the United States today can trace their ancestry through the immigrants processed at Ellis Island.
View symbols incorporated into the Statue of Liberty Island History The same
Located in the upper New York Bay, the three-acre Ellis Island was
originally known to Native Americans as Kioshk, or Gull Island, named for
the birds that were its only inhabitants.
In 1630, European colonists gave Native Americans “certain
cargoes, or parcels of goods” in exchange for the island, but they found
that it was not a prime building site, so the island changed ownership
many times. During the 1700s
the island was known as Gibbet Island, due to the executions by hanging of
state criminals and pirates from a “gibbet,” or gallows tree, that
took place there. By means
never officially determined, ownership passed into the hands of Samuel
Ellis who tried, unsuccessfully, to sell the island. Ellis still owned the island when he died in 1794, and
members of his family disputed title to the island. The same year that Ellis died, a small part of the island that was publicly owned was deeded to the state and construction began on a military fort, Fort Gibson, in fear of new attacks from the British. The state of New York convinced Ellis’ family to sell the island for $10,183.00 in 1808 so that Fort Gibson could be expanded. During the War of 1812, it was used to house American soldiers and prisoners of war. In 1890, the House Committee on Immigration chose the island as the site of the new Immigration Station for the Port of New York. The Immigration Station officially opened on January 1, 1892, following the 1886 dedication of the Statue of Liberty on nearby Bedloe's Island. Three steamships delivered seven hundred passengers on this momentous day. Processing Immigrants at Ellis Island Despite the apparent transformation of
the island into a gateway for immigrants to enter America, a more comprehensive
immigration law passed in the spring of 1891. The law screened
for “undesirables,” people with prison records for crimes involving
“moral turpitude,” and all “persons suffering from a loathsome or contagious
disease.” The combination of this stricter law, a cholera scare, and the
financial panic of 1893, followed by several years of economic depression,
led to a consistent decrease in the number of immigrants arriving in New York.
By 1898 the number of immigrants processed fell from 445,987 (in
1892) to 178,748.
Images from the Immigration Station and questions asked of the newly arrived passengers. A fire in 1897 led to the reconstruction of the Immigration
Station, including a new main building, dormitories, a baggage receiving
room, and the addition of two, smaller islands holding hospital
facilities. The new Ellis
Island opened in 1900 and cost $1.5 million to complete. Unfortunately, by
the outbreak of World War I in 1914, immigration to America all but
ceased. After the war, many
Americans were eager to see immigration restricted, and in 1917 new
legislation did just that. The
law specified 33 classes of foreigners who could not be admitted, and
demanded literacy testing. Despite
these obstacles, by 1921 the number of arrivals climbed to 500,000.
Additional laws restricting immigrants led to severe declines in
immigrant arrivals so that by 1954, only 21,500 immigrants passed through
the Island’s portals. Abandonment
and Resurrection A adapted from
American Park Network |