This scenario was far different for third class passengers, commonly referred to as “steerage.” These immigrants traveled in crowded and often unsanitary conditions near the bottom of steamships, often spending up to two weeks seasick in their bunks during rough Atlantic Ocean crossings. However, regardless of class, sick passengers or those with legal problems were sent to Ellis Island for further inspection. Instead, these passengers received a cursory inspection aboard the ship theory being that if a person could afford to purchase a first or second class ticket they were affluent and less likely to become a public charge in America due to medical or legal reasons. The great steamship companies like the White Star, Red Star, Cunard, and Hamburg-America Lines played a significant role in the history of Ellis Island and immigration as a whole.įirst and second class passengers arriving in New York Harbor were not required to undergo the inspection process at Ellis Island. Most immigrants entered the United States through New York Harbor, although there were other ports of entry in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Over the next 62 years, more than 12 million immigrants would arrive in the United States via Ellis Island. ![]() Annie Moore, a teenage girl from Ireland, accompanied by her two younger brothers, made history as the very first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island. The new structure on Ellis Island began receiving arriving immigrants on January 1, 1892. During construction, the Barge Office in the Battery was used for immigrant processing. Around 1890, it became apparent that Castle Garden was ill-equipped and unprepared to handle the mass influx, leading the Federal government to construct a new immigration station on Ellis Island. In the 1800s, rising political instability, economic distress, and religious persecution plagued Europe, fueling the largest mass human migration in the history of the world. ![]() ![]() Approximately eight million immigrants passed through its doors, mostly from Northern European countries this constituted the first large wave of immigrants to settle and populate the U.S. Castle Garden (now Castle Clinton), located in the Battery of Manhattan, served as the New York State immigration station from 1855 to 1890. Prior to 1890, individual states, rather than the Federal Government, regulated immigration into the United States.
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