Immigrants Making Their Way To Freedom

4 Pages 1037 Words

Ellis Island received thousands of immigrants a day from 1840 to 1924. Great steamships of the early 20th century transported faces of thousand nations to the New York Harbor. There were Russian Jews with fascinated beards, Irish farmers who carried marks of hard work from their home land, Greeks in slippers and kilts, Italians with mustaches, Cossacks carrying fierce swords, English in short knickers, and Arabs in long robes. A new life was ahead of them, leaving their old ones behind along with families and friends. As the immigrants glanced at their first sight of America, they were able to see America’s most populous port and America’s powerful welcome of the Statue of Liberty. On the New Jersey side of the river, were the red brick buildings of Ellis Island. The four towers of its largest building rose over 140 feet into the air. This was a place of rules and questions, the official building, where five thousand people were processed each day.
The men were migrated first, in order to seek out jobs and housings. The wives, children, and parents followed. In all, 60 million people sought out to America to find a new life during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They came from word of promise of jobs, freedom, and a fortune to be made. The earliest arrivals started in the mid1840’s. The First Wave of immigrants came from Ireland, England, Germany, and Scandinavia, which were escaping starvation, feudal governments, and the social upheaval from the Industrial Revolution. A Second Wave of immigrants from 1890-1924 came from Southern and Eastern Europe. This group was during America’s peak immigration years. Not only were these immigrants fleeing taxes, poverty, and overpopulation, but also oppression and religious persecution.
The passage to America improved dramatically when the steam-powered ships came about. Ocean travel time was cut in half from three months to two weeks. Shipping lines such as the Cunard ...