Ellis Island | Yearning to Breathe Free | 1

0:00Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American history tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.

0:17Imagine it's a summer day in 1848. You and your wife are standing on the deck of a sailing ship that has just docked in lower Manhattan. After six weeks at sea in a damp and crowded steerage cabin, you're relishing the fresh air and your first sight of New York City. You're anxiously waiting for your chance to disembark when a group of men walk up the gangplank to board the ship. One of them takes long strides toward you and your wife. He bows his head and doffs his cap, a grin spreading across his face. Well, good morning, and welcome to New York City. He extends a hand, and the sunlight catches a silver ring on one of his fingers.

0:57You shake his hand firmly, marveling at the familiar crest on the ring. Are you an Irishman? Born and raised. Where do you folks come from? We're from Galway. Galway? Well, what do you know? So am I. What a coincidence. I must say it's a real comfort to find a friendly face so many miles from home. Well, I am pleased to make your acquaintance. The man bends down and lifts your wooden trunk with ease. You hold out your hand to stop him. Oh, no, you don't need to do that. Don't worry about it. I'm a baggage handler. He starts walking off with your trunk. Your wife grabs your arm in concern, and you dash off after the man.

1:33Wait a minute. I appreciate the help, but I can handle the trunk just fine. You finally catch up with him, but as he turns around to face you, his smile has disappeared. If you want the trunk back, it'll cost you a$15 hauling fee. What? $15? I don't have that kind of money. Well, it's no trouble. I'll store it for you at the tavern on the corner of Greenwich and Cedar Street. You can buy it back once you do have the money. Now, wait a minute. I did not agree to that. Hey, come back here. The man ignores your protests and disappears into the crowd. You turn around to face your wife. Don't worry, sweetheart.

2:11I'll sort this out. Everything's going to be just fine. She doesn't look persuaded. You knew starting over in America wouldn't be easy, but you never expected to face such cruelty and deception before you even set foot on land. Now, with all your possessions being held for ransom, The dream that brought you here feels impossibly out of reach.

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4:00From Audible Originals, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers, our history, your story.

4:22On our show, we'll take you to the events, the times, and the people that shaped America and Americans. Our values, our struggles, and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made, and we'll show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now. In the mid-19th century, record numbers of Europeans arrived on American shores, fleeing economic turmoil, political unrest, and religious persecution. But after long journeys across the Atlantic, these immigrants stepped onto the bustling wharves of lower Manhattan only to be thrust into a world of chaos.

4:58With every ship that docked, bands of fast-talking sharks and swindlers descended, eager to prey on immigrants' confusion. These so-called immigrant runners lured unsuspecting newcomers into overpriced lodging, charged inflated rates for organizing transportation and handling baggage, and stole their belongings only to sell them back at a higher price. At this time, immigration regulation was left to the states, with New York overseeing the nation's busiest port of entry. But as immigration soared to unprecedented levels toward the end of the century, it became clear that state oversight was no longer enough to manage what was clearly a national issue.

5:36So in 1892, the U.S. government intervened by establishing Ellis Island, a federal immigration depot in New York Harbor. Over the next three decades, 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island in one of the largest human migrations in global history. As the port of entry for roughly 80 % of American immigrants, Ellis Island became the focus of the nation's immigration policies, serving as both a gateway to the American dream and a barrier to the thousands who were detained or deported. Ellis Island was also one of the nation's first large government programs, where inspectors, doctors, and other officials were tasked with interpreting vague and continually evolving federal immigration policies.

6:19And in their daily decisions, abstract debates took on human consequences, shaping millions of lives and the future of a modernizing nation. This is Episode 1 in our three-part series on Ellis Island, Yearning to Breathe Free.

6:37In the 1840s, immigration was a lucrative business for New York gang leader and Democratic Party boss Isaiah Reinders. The former professional gambler and knife fighter stood at the top of a chain of thieves, conmen, railroad ticketing agents, tavern owners, and prostitutes who prowled the docks of lower Manhattan. They were known as immigrant runners, shady predators who sought to profit from immigrants' confusion and ignorance. The money they made from swindling and extorting immigrants made its way up to Reinders, who ran his business with little interference from local authorities. He had his men steer newcomers to the saloons, brothels, and boarding houses he controlled, using the profits to power the local Democratic Party machine.

7:19And at that time, there were more immigrants for Reinders to exploit than ever before. In the mid-19th century, the door to America was wide open. Roughly half a million immigrants arrived in the United States in the 1830s, but that number more than doubled in the 1840s, with 1.2 million people arriving in New York Harbor over the course of the decade. Nearly half of these were desperately poor Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Potato Famine. But there were also hundreds of thousands of Germans escaping their own crop failures and political upheaval. And when they landed in New York, there was no official processing or guidance.

7:55Immigrants simply walked off their ships to find their own way in a strange land. and the federal government took little interest in immigration. Instead, regulation was left to the states. Some states passed laws to exclude criminals, paupers, and the sick, but enforcement was weak. In the absence of government regulation, exploitation ran rampant. Immigrant aid societies fought to protect these vulnerable newcomers, but they struggled to keep up with the massive influx. By 1847, New York's Irish and German aid societies joined together to urge the state government to intervene. The state responded by forming the New York Board of Commissioners of Immigration.

8:34And in 1855, this board established America's first official immigrant reception center at Castle Garden, a former fort on the southern tip of Manhattan in the area known as the Battery. At Castle Garden, immigrants would have a place to exchange currency, purchase railroad tickets, receive medical care, and access reliable information about housing and jobs, free from the clutches of the immigrant runners. To pay for these services, the board charged shipowners a$1 a head tax for each immigrant they carried to American shores. But Isaiah Reinders and his henchmen refused to lose their business without a fight.

9:09On the day Castle Garden opened in August 1855, immigrant runners tried to crash through the doors, forcing one of the workers to drive them away at gunpoint. Reinders claimed that his goal was open, fair competition for businesses like his, insisting that it was unfair for the state to control immigrant processing and care. But in the meantime, he had no qualms about vilifying the immigrants he claimed to be helping. He organized a mass protest of Castle Garden, posting flyers around the city urging citizens to gather in the name of protecting New York from disease and desecration by the sickly and loathsome paupers and refugees of Europe.

9:46And three nights after Castle Garden opened, 3 ,000 of his supporters took to the streets in a torch-lit march. But local newspapers understood the true purpose of this protest, with one denouncing it as an attempt to throw the immigrants again into the hands of thieves who have grown rich by robbing strangers. So Reinder's efforts failed to shut down Castle Garden. And for the first time, immigrants could enter the country without fear of fraud or exploitation. One English immigrant praised Castle Garden as a great national refuge for the immigrant from all lands. And over the next 35 years, 8 million people entered the United States through its doors.

10:22But in the 1880s, immigration skyrocketed once again, with 5 million new arrivals in that decade alone. Previously, most immigrants came from Britain, Germany, and Ireland, but now there were growing numbers of Jews and Orthodox Christians fleeing poverty, religious persecution, and political instability in southern and eastern European countries like Italy, Russia, Poland, and Austria-Hungary. In this new decade, steamships had made transatlantic travel safer, faster, and cheaper, and therefore more accessible to working-class Europeans than ever before. So most of the new arrivals were illiterate and unskilled workers who sought employment in America's booming industrial economy.

11:03This surge in immigration fueled anti-immigrant sentiment among native-born Americans. Newspapers and magazines devoted increasing space to the topic of immigration, with some writers warning that foreigners would carry European-style corruption and instability to American shores, endangering democracy itself. The Chicago Times declared that the socialists, anarchists, nihilists, lunatics, beggars, and other social dregs from the old world threatens the destruction of our national edifice. And while most Americans supported immigration in principle, consensus began to grow around the idea of screening out the undesirable based on their mental, physical, and moral characteristics.

11:43Another newspaper declared, what we need is the inspection and sifting of intending immigrants. Another argued for the welcoming of the intelligent, industrious, and honest foreigners, but the highest and strongest barriers for the worthless human rubbish. So in the face of this mass influx and turning public opinion, the federal government moved to take control of immigration away from the states. The shift began with the 1875 Supreme Court case Henderson v. Mayer of New York, which affirmed federal authority over immigration and prohibited states from collecting head taxes from steamship companies for the immigrants they transported.

12:19Congress followed, with its own measure in 1882, passing a law excluding criminals, paupers, and those likely to become public charges, meaning people not able to take care of themselves. Congress also placed immigration oversight in the hands of the U.S. Treasury Department. That same year, legislators succumbed to pressure from white labor unions on the West Coast by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred nearly all Chinese laborers and made race a basis for exclusion for the first time, principally impacting immigration through the Port of San Francisco. And finally, in 1885, Congress again responded to the demands of labor organizers by passing the Alien Contract Labor Law, which prohibited employers from importing foreign workers under binding contracts, often for lower wages.

13:06It was a victory for labor unions, hoping to protect wages and stop companies from using immigrant contract workers as strikebreakers. And to enforce these new federal laws, the Treasury Department drew up contracts with state agencies like New York's Board of Commissioners, which ran Castle Garden. But with immigration surging in the 1880s and more than 70 % of new arrivals entering through the Port of New York, Castle Garden was being pushed to its breaking point. And without revenue from the state head tax, conditions deteriorated. Efforts to protect immigrants from runners declined, and outside the walls of Castle Garden, immigrants once again ran a gauntlet of predators eager to exploit their confusion for profit.

13:50Imagine it's July 1887 outside Albany, New York, and you're on board a third-class carriage on a westbound train on the New York Central Railroad. Yesterday, you arrived in New York City with your three children after a long journey from Poland. Now you're headed to Chicago, where your husband has been living for the past two years. You sit on a stiff wooden bench with your children, watching the unfamiliar scenery roll past. Tickets, please. You turn to find a conductor standing in the aisle, holding out his hand. You reach into the small person in your lap and pull out four tickets, your hand trembling as you pass them to him.

14:27He holds them up to his glasses and frowns. Oh, man, these tickets are no good. I'm going to need you to get off at the next station. I don't understand. You're on the wrong train, ma 'am. But I'm going to Chicago. The man at the station said this was the train for Chicago. This train goes to Chicago via Albany and Buffalo. But these tickets are for a different route. You paid to go from New York to Albany to Troy to Rutland to Bellows Falls to Springfield, then back to Albany, then on to Buffalo, and then finally Chicago. You shake your head, trying to make sense of this, while your son stirs uneasily beside you.

15:01I'm sorry I don't follow, sir. I'm trying to tell you that these tickets are only valid as far as Albany. But the man at Castle Garden said, Sounds like the man at Castle Garden took you for a ride. Every transfer between rail lines means more money in his pocket. He cheated me? It happens all the time. They take advantage of folks who can't read English. We're going to be stopping briefly in Schenectady. You better start gathering your things. The conductor walks away. You grab your carpet bag and get your children to their feet. All right, come along. I guess we have to get off now. Curious passengers turn their heads as your family hurries down the aisle.

15:39You stumble as the train slows to a stop, fear rising in your chest. You have no idea where you'll go next or how you'll afford to get there when the little money you brought to America is already gone.

15:55In the 1880s, immigrants at Castle Garden were at the mercy of railroad companies that overcharged them, sent them to the wrong destination, or booked them on unnecessarily lengthy routes involving multiple transfers to increase fees. But in 1887, these practices caught the attention of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. He launched a campaign against Castle Garden in the pages of his New York World and had a personal interest in the welfare of immigrants. Born in Hungary, he had immigrated to the U.S. through Castle Garden himself as a penniless teenager. In the years since, he had made a name for himself as a crusading journalist, and in 1885, he used his paper to raise money for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, installed in New York Harbor with the famous inscription, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

16:43In the years to follow, this statue became a powerful symbol of freedom and hope for millions of immigrants. And now, Pulitzer turned his paper against Castle Garden, denouncing it as the disgrace of the nation. A series of articles accused officials of granting a monopoly to a railroad cartel that fixed fares and exploited newcomers, and this scrutiny drew the attention of President Grover Cleveland and Congress, who launched investigations. They found that baggage handlers, railroad agents, and currency exchanges were fleecing immigrants. But rampant corruption and abuse weren't the only problems.

17:17Congress concluded that the facilities were inadequate to handle the sheer numbers of immigrants and that inspections were rushed and ineffective. So in February 1890, the Treasury Secretary notified Castle Garden officials that he was terminating their contract. A few months later, on April 18, 1890, Castle Garden closed its doors for good. To replace it, Congress resolved to build a new federal immigration facility. For a location, legislatures selected Ellis Island in Upper New York Harbor, a few hundred yards from the New Jersey shore. This three-acre island was already owned by the federal government, and while it was remote enough to keep immigrant runners away, it was still close to Manhattan and the railroad lines connecting to the rest of the country.

18:01Over the next two years, workers dredged deeper channels, built docks, and constructed a reception building on Ellis Island. In the meantime, immigrants were processed at a makeshift site at the old barge office on the Battery in Manhattan. And while construction work was underway, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1891. This expanded the categories of exclusion listed in the 1882 law to include idiots, the insane, those suffering from serious diseases, and those guilty of felonies and crimes of moral turpitude. Excluded immigrants would be sent home at the expense of the steamship companies that brought them.

18:38So now, steamship lines had a financial incentive to screen passengers before departing from Europe. The law also placed immigration fully under federal control and gave sweeping authority to government inspectors, whose decisions were final unless personally overturned by the Treasury Secretary. Immigrants would have no access to the courts to appeal these decisions. This 1891 law marked a turning point in American immigration policy. Congress had transformed a loosely managed local process into a centralized federal system. But at Ellis Island, officials would soon discover the difficulties of separating the desirable from the undesirable as they came face-to-face with a daily stream of desperate people seeking new lives in America.

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21:21On January 1, 1892, a 17-year-old Irish immigrant named Annie Moore bounded down a gangplank to step ashore on Ellis Island. She and her two younger brothers had braved a 12-day journey across the Atlantic in crowded and unsanitary conditions. At last, their steamship, the SS Nevada, had sailed past the Statue of Liberty and arrived in the waters surrounding New York City. Cheering crowds greeted Moore as she became the first immigrant to arrive at the new federal immigration station on Ellis Island. Officials asked her a few questions and then signed her into the entry book. Soon after, she and her brothers were reunited with their father, already on American soil.

22:01Annie Moore was one of the 700 immigrants processed on Ellis Island's opening day. And as a rosy-cheeked, English-speaking young woman, she made for a convenient poster child for the new processing center. But most of her fellow third-class passengers were Russian Jews. Wealthier first - and second-class passengers didn't pass through Ellis Island at all, but disembarked in Manhattan and received only a brief inspection because officials assumed their finances made them unlikely to become public charges. But on Ellis Island, immigrants endured more scrutiny. One by one, the new arrivals entered the depot and walked up a double staircase to the second-floor registry room.

22:41Medical inspectors watched them as they climbed the stairs, looking for any obvious physical difficulties such as limping or labored breathing. Then there on the second floor, immigrants filed into lines for a legal inspection. Each line ended in a desk with a clerk whose job was to cross-examine them, verifying information from the ship's manifest and making sure they did not fall under any category of exclusion. Contrary to popular myth, inspectors did not arbitrarily change names that were difficult to spell or pronounce. They simply checked information against manifests. Any name changes typically occurred before immigrants departed for Europe or during the naturalization process.

23:20Regardless, once admitted, immigrants of any name could access railroad ticket counters, currency exchanges, and a lunch counter. The process usually took anywhere from three to five hours. Once immigrants had passed their inspections, they were free to board ferries to Manhattan or Jersey City. Very few were denied entry. And in the first two years after Ellis Island opened, only about one immigrant out of every 200 was barred from entering the country and sent back to Europe. One of the most common reasons for exclusion was contagious disease, and fears for public health were at the heart of the first major crisis at Ellis Island in the wake of the arrival of the steamship Massilia on January 30, 1892.