Ellis Island

Introduction

Ellis Island is situated just before Manhattan, along the stunning New York Bay, which can be easily reached through ferry from the main island. It is also considered as the heart of the Big Apple, which served as the main area for more than fifteen million immigrants, who entered the United States after leaving their native countries with hopes to get settled.

Ellis Island was originally called gibbet Island by the British. The British used the Island to imprison the pirates who were caught red-handed; later the Island was used as a defense and artillery storage area. The Island is also among the forty islands which are located around the New York Bay. The famous story of Ellis Island began in 1894, when the Island played a critical role as a receiving station for immigrants; it continued to be used for this reason until the federal government took control of migration, a step which was necessary for the heavy arrivals of immigrants from mostly southern and Eastern Europe. (Szucs, P.56)

Ellis Island served as the basis for asylum-prison, which remained functional until 1954, when it was shut down and left to the elements. More than hundred million Americans can locate their origin in the United States to a man, woman or child who walked through the great hall of Ellis Island. Today it is transformed into a Museum of Immigration.

Immigration system to New York had no official, or formal, procedures and process until the 1850s. Since then, there was a heavy increase in the number of European immigrants escaping from the great famine of 1846 and the failed revolutions of 1848, which forced the authorities to open an immigration center at Castle Clinton in Battery Park, on the southern tip of Manhattan Island. During the period of 1880, people faced hardships in Eastern and Southern Africa, and there was strong economic depression in the South, which forced thousands of those people to flee the Old World. On the hand, America was seen as an opportunity because it was taking away the industrial revolution, with an accelerating process of urbanization. (Cannato, p.99)

Ellis Island was opened in 1894, when America overcame a period of economic depression and began to establish itself as a world power. Rumors were spread across Europe, about the opportunities offered by the New World as a result of which, thousands of people decided to leave their homeland.

When steamships came into the port of New York, the richest, first and second class passengers were inspected at their convenience in their cabins to the ground and escorted by immigration officials. The steerage passengers were taken to Ellis Island for inspection, which was not easy. The historic Ellis Island ferry was used by the Immigration Service to transport the immigrants and the staff of the immigration center.

Every immigrant who arrived at New York brought a document with information about the ship. The doctors checked every immigrant for a short time, and marked on the back of those, who needed ...