The Immigrant Experience at Castle Garden (1877)

Introduction

The article "The Immigrant Experience at Castle Garden - September 1877" offers a detailed and evocative portrayal of what immigrants encountered upon their arrival at Castle Garden, New York City’s primary immigration processing center in the 19th century. The article delves into the various stages of the immigration process, highlighting the challenges, emotions, and experiences of those who passed through this significant gateway to America. It captures the essence of the immigrant journey, from the moment they set foot in the United States to the beginning of their new lives.

Giles and His Friends at the Village Inn Discussing Plans to Immigrate to America. Scribner's Magazine, September 1877. GGA Image ID # 14773bc5f9

It is a curious fact that just as many German emigrants come to America via Liverpool as those taking German steamships directly from Hamburg or Bremen. The emigrants going through Liverpool are conveyed to Hull by sea and across England by rail.

There is scarcely a hamlet in England that has not been invaded by the emissaries of one of the great steamship lines. A bold red and black placard is displayed in the tavern, the reading room, or the apothecary's shop, bearing the names of half a dozen vessels and the dates of their sailings.

Honest Giles, sitting on an evening in his accustomed place by the fireside of the village inn, has it constantly before him and makes it the text of many long chats with his neighbors about the beautiful land in the west. It is loosely tacked to the edge of a shelf and rustles and ripples in the breeze every time the door is opened to admit a newcomer.

The farrier's son is in America, and the glowing accounts he sends to his father of his new home are invariably read aloud to the assembled company. The general opinion of the villagers is favorable to " the States." Still, the sexton—a bluff, hectoring fellow with pronounced views favoring church and state- has no love for this land of liberty and law.

Sometimes a queer paragraph appears in the newspaper relating an instance of lynch law in Arkansas or of party politics in Louisiana. Then, the sexton cries out against Americans as boastful and corrupt people. He succeeds in turning the current against them for a few days. Still, when next week's paper comes, Giles reads the eloquent words of praise from Mr. Fronde, Mr. Forster, Professor Huxley, or Professor Tyndall and is re-established to the old faith.

Some of the old villagers who formerly sat around the fire and drowsed away all evenings of the year are settled in Australia, Canada, or the United States. They often send letters to the village with small amounts of money or photographs representing the writers as brighter-looking and in a better dress than they ever appeared at home.

The most encouraging accounts of all come from" the States," and when honest Giles is sorely pressed with difficulties, Mrs. Giles is fading for want of proper nourishment, and her boys are running to waste; after long deliberation and many regrets, Giles resolves to sell his little all and embark for New York.

When he announces his resolution to his cronies at "The King's Anus," the hostelry is stirred by a ripple of excitement such as it seldom experiences. Still, as the evening advances, Giles is left to himself, and contemplating the steamship placard through the clouds of his tobacco smoke, the gaudy printing reveals a series of dissolving views of happiness and prosperity awaiting him across the sea.

He selects one of the Liverpool steamers, as they have the best reputation and are the most convenient. His choice is the common one. More than half of the emigrants to the United States arrive in New York in vessels from the former port. One morning, Giles is surrounded by his numerous family members and baggage on the Great Landing stage in Liverpool.

The vast floating pier is crowded with departing emigrants, who are as confused and frightened as a flock of sheep. The majority are English, Irish, and Scotch, but there are also bearded Russians and Poles, enveloped in frowzy furs; uncleanly Italians, some of them carrying dingy musical instruments, with a considerable number of Germans.

It is a curious fact, as many German immigrants come to America via Liverpool, as in the German steamers that come directly from Hamburg or Bremen. They are conveyed to Hull by water and thence across England to Liverpool by rail.

Mr. Giles is a little dismayed by the appearance of his prospective traveling companions. A good many sinister men and loose women are noticeable. Giles thinks sadly of the distant corners of the earth, which must have been swept out in their gathering. But among the unclean outcasts, the sturdy plowman rejoices to find a few who are like himself and his wife—neat in dress and clean in person.

The busy, gold-laced interpreters and emigration agents treat all alike, however, answering questions gruffly or not at all and often causing the hot blood to rush madly into Giles's indignant face.

After much worry and noise, a small steamboat takes the emigrants from the landing stage and conveys them to the large vessel anchored in the stream.

As they pass up the narrow gangway, one officer scans the tickets while another orders "single men forrad" and " single women aft." So, the crowd is divided into two streams, and in an hour, the decks of the big steamship are restored to order.

Each emigrant has a contract ticket that stipulates their transportation to New York in consideration of four, five, or six guineas, according to the current fare rate. The company engages to provide a total supply of wholesome provisions, cooked and served by its stewards, and the passenger is required to provide himself with bedding and cooking utensils.

Dinner is Served in the Steerage. Scribner's Magazine, September 1877. GGA Image ID # 147746a1c0

The government prescribes the weekly food allowance for each adult and prints it on the contract ticket as follows: " Twenty-one quarts of water, three and a half pounds of bread, one pound of wheaten flour, one pound and a half of oatmeal, rice and peas, two pounds of potatoes, one and a quarter pounds of beef, one pound of pork, two ounces of tea, one pound of sugar, two ounces of salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar."

The steerage stewards berthed the emigrants and marshaled them on deck again under the scrutiny of a government inspector who was searching for infectious diseases. The inspector examined their tickets again, and some would-be stowaways were sent back to the shore in the little tender.

Piteous complaints are made by some unfortunates among the passengers that they have been robbed of their money in the town or lost their tickets, but their cries are unavailing and are drowned in the roar of escaping steam and the clangor of the bells. By and by the I cabin, passengers are brought on board, and with full cargo and a thousand souls, the great steamer leaves her moorings.

A Brief History of Immigration and Steerage

Let us preface all that we have to say against how Giles and his fellow voyagers are treated with this frank admission: Constant improvements are being made in emigrant passenger vessels.

Less than a hundred years ago, most immigrants were impoverished, so poor that they could not prepay for their passage. Accepting advances, they were bonded to the ship-owners, who derived enormous profits from the sale of their bodies into temporary slavery.

Charles Reade's delightful story "The Wandering Heir" vividly describes the emigrant traffic at this period. Whenever a vessel arrived in Philadelphia or New York, the steerage passengers were sold at public auction to the highest bidder.

The country people either came themselves to purchase or sent agents. Parents sold their children so that they might remain free themselves, and families were scattered, never to be reunited. Old people and widows did not sell well, while healthy parents with healthy children and youths of both sexes always found a ready market.

When one or both parents died on the voyage, the expenses of the whole family were summed up and charged to the survivor or survivors. Adults had to serve from three to six years, and children until they came of age. Runaways had to serve one week for each day, one month for each week, and six months for each month of their absence. Technically, the emigrants were called indented servants," but in effect, they were enslaved.

The last emigrant sales occurred in Philadelphia between 1818 and 1819. The American government then interfered with the traffic and encouraged the emigration of a superior class. But the accommodations for emigrants remained shamefully defective, and nearly twenty out of every hundred passengers died at sea of fever or starvation. The steerage deck was usually about five feet high, without ventilation or light, and in this space, the bunks were ranged in two or three tiers.

Another evil that, up to a very recent date, prevailed on board emigrant vessels further impaired the health of the passengers. The emigrants were expected to provide and cook their own food. Many embarked without any provisions at all or an insufficient quantity, and others found no opportunity to cook what they had.

On the upper deck of the vessel, there were two small " galleys," about five feet wide and four feet deep, each supplied with a grate. These were the only arrangements made for cooking the food of several hundred persons.

Thousands never lived to see their destination. Out of about ninety-eight thousand laborers sent from Ireland to Canada after the famine of 1846, nearly twenty-five thousand perished as a consequence of the poor rations and defective ventilation of the ships. Later still, in 1868, on one vessel alone, the " Leibnitz," from Hamburg—over one hundred passengers died out of five hundred.

Giles lives in better days. The mortality rate on vessels bringing emigrants to New York seldom exceeds one and two-thirds percent and, in some instances, is at most one-eighth percent. But Giles is dissatisfied, and we mean to see whether or not he is justified in his ill humor.

The Immigrant Steamer Leaves Liverpool for Queenstown

The great steamer soon bids goodbye to the Mersey and rolls on her way through the cross waters of the Irish Sea toward Queenstown. The sky is overcast and sullen, rain and spray patter on the deck, and the wind shrieks in chilly blasts.

Between the gray clouds overhead and the gray waters beneath, the black hull of the steamer tosses and groans uneasily. The great passengers of the first cabin and the small passengers of the steerage are afflicted with a common complaint. They are prostrate in their berths or in a humiliating attitude on deck.

The weather is always the same in the Irish Sea—always cold, wet, and windy. So, while the most acute of Giles's present miseries may be alleviated, it cannot be altogether averted.

The emigrants are roughly driven hither and thither and urged into their places by much hard swearing and abuse. Neither officers nor men consider them worthy of the slightest respect and treat them as a drove of cattle.

Some of the vagabonds and outcasts submit without complaint. Still, decent laborers like Giles feel indignant and resent the savage words.

Giles can scarcely believe that the steerage is intended to be a house for human beings. It is cold, dark, and—at the very outset of the voyage—foul-smelling. It extends nearly the whole length of the vessel beneath the saloon deck and is divided into gloomy compartments.

In each compartment, there are four tiers of berths or bunks, two on each side. The lower tier is about two feet from the deck, and the upper tier is about three feet from the roof. The height of the steerage is about ten feet, which the steamship owners advertised as unusually lofty.

Each tier has six berths, eighteen inches wide and six feet long, formed of wooden boards, smelling faintly of chlorate of lime and carbolic acid. One-half of the passengers have never had softer or more spacious couches and accept their lot in good part, but the other half have been used to a comfortable home and are wretched.

There is no thorough classification of the passengers. The single men and women are separated, but Poles, Germans, English, and French are thrown together without discrimination.

A cleanly, thrifty English or German woman is berthed next to a filthy Italian woman. Mrs. Giles thinks her bed would be hard enough, even though isolated. Still, her misery is intensified by the presence of a dreadful hag in the next berth.

A dreary sight meets Giles as he enters the steerage from the open deck. A feeble light streams through the ports, which are occasionally obscured by a wave dashing against them on the outside. He can dimly see the women and children sitting or lying in their berths and hear the children's cries. The stewards are fussing about or making coarse jokes.

By and by, preparations are made for supper, of which only a few eat, and when the meal is over, the tables are raised to the roof, leaving a clear space in the center of the steerage.

Anon, a few oil lamps are lighted and will be extinguished again at nine o'clock. The massive vessel quivers as she lurches between the waves, and her engines throb unceasingly as the long night passes.

Arrival at Queenstown

Sometime the following day, she enters the beautiful harbor at Queenstown, and a few hundred weeping, laughing, forlorn Irishmen are introduced into the already overcrowded steerage. She has passed the Fastnet Light at sunset, and the ocean voyage has begun.

Giles is too occupied with other grievances to think about the vessel's lifesaving equipment and would have no means of satisfying himself were he inclined to inquire.

The vessel herself is as stanch as iron and steel can make her, and the line to which she belongs has never lost the life of a passenger through the carelessness of its employees. Man has been faithful and fate-kind to those old shipowners at Liverpool.

No severe accident has ever happened to their steamers, which have weathered the cyclones of summer and the continuous gales of winter for many years. But what if disaster should occur? Has every provision that human forethought and ingenuity could devise been made to meet it?

Not Enough Lifeboats

The largest steamers in the trade carry ten open boats, each of which, under favorable circumstances, might accommodate about seventy persons. But when are circumstances so favorable that all a ship's boats can be launched successfully in a panic? Two or three are almost invariably capsized or dashed to pieces against the iron sides of the vessel, and even supposing that all are launched, what then?

During a busy season, some of the larger steamers from Liverpool often bring as many as fifteen hundred emigrants to New York at a time. In some instances, seventeen hundred persons, exclusive of the crew, have been packed in the steerage of one vessel.

The ten boats will carry seven hundred at the most, and no rafts or buoys are on board for a hundred more. In case of a mid-ocean fire or a wreck, the consequent loss would include the more significant part of passengers and crew.

The truth is that the owners trust good luck in contemplating the subject or treating the matter with indifference. The captains and officers are compelled to assume responsibility.

The master of a steamer told the writer that when leaving Liverpool with over a thousand emigrants on board, he once remarked to the agent how improbable it was that a single life would be saved if the ship were ever necessary to abandon at sea.

The agent dismissed the matter with the cool observation that the captain took a morbid view of things and distressed himself about disasters that would never happen. Giles and his friends, who have never been afloat before in their lives, are slow in settling down to the routine of the voyage.

They complain to the captain about the narrowness of their quarters, the audacity of the stewards, and the quality of their food, and the captain listens to them or growls at them, depending on his mood.

While the weather is fine, their sufferings are not very significant. Three meals are served every day, and the rations are better than the law demands, both in quantity, which is unlimited and in quality, which is variable.

Breakfast, at eight o'clock, consists of oatmeal porridge and molasses, salt fish, hot bread, and coffee; dinner, at twelve, of soup or broth, boiled meats, potatoes, and bread; and supper, at six, of tea bread, butter, and molasses.

But how the meals are served is careless and unclean. The beef, soup, and porridge are placed on the table in great, rusty-looking tins, which need scrubbing. The passengers scramble for the first choice, often using their dirty fingers instead of their forks, in making a selection.

Mrs. Giles finds her appetite gone after watching a filthy rag-picker plunge his hand into a meat dish for a tender piece. The stewards themselves are greasy and want washing. The potatoes are had, and the bread needs to be baked more. Still, while the sea is calm, Giles can take his family on deck and brace them with the glorious fresh air, which brings roses to pallid cheeks.

Indeed, the emigrants are quite merry on deck during a warm summer's day. Some of the filthy Italians are dragged from their suffocating retreat over the gratings of the engine room and induced to give a concert with their harps and violins, to which the cabin passengers liberally subscribe.

Card parties are formed, and checkerboards are roughly made for the occasion. Giles lies basking at full length on a hatchway and dreaming over an old newspaper.

It is when a storm comes that the emigrants suffer most. The hatches are battened down, the ports screwed in their places as tightly as possible, and the companion-ways closed.

So long as the sea sweeps the decks, Giles and thirteen hundred others are confined to the steerage. It may be for a day, or two or three days. The atmosphere becomes closer each hour, and in twenty-four hours, it is loaded with impurities.

The meals are served irregularly or not, and the food needs to be cooked more. In the darkness, the ignorant and timid lose control of themselves and pour out imprecations and prayers in a shrill chorus. The terror spreads to others, and the bravest quail grows louder as the shrieks grow louder.

The greater the number of emigrants, the greater the confusion and the worse the atmosphere. We have known of instances in which the sailors have refused to enter the steerage to clean it after a storm until the captain fortified them with an extra supply of grog. And sailors are not ridiculously sensitive, nor are captains in the habit of indulging them without reason.

When he reaches the open air again, Giles is pale and feverish, and his wife and children are too weak to stand. The deck is still wet, and the wind is boisterous, but he cannot endure that " black hole " of steerage. The thought of the filth he has seen and the dread of contamination sickens him.

He thinks the company is to blame for crowding so many people together. Still, some emigrants' habits are even more to blame than the overcrowding. The Italians will not wash themselves and cling to their berths until the captain peremptorily orders them out.

They neglect every provision made to ensure their personal cleanliness, and they excite little sympathy when they are brought on deck and thoroughly drenched with water from the fire hose.

The voyage draws to a close in nine or ten days, and hope is revived in Giles's breast. He has very hazy ideas of the country he is approaching. He believes its characteristic features are Indians, buffaloes, and log cabins.

He expects to likely obtain a view of the Rocky Mountains from Chicago, see war chiefs in their paint on the streets, and hunt for his supper before he eats it. He has heard much about the great cities, the wealth and liberality of the people, and the profligacy of municipal government, but it never enters his head that New York has any of the magnificence of London.

When the steamer arrives at Quarantine, his surprise is unbounded. The cultivated lands on the heights of Staten Island and on the Long Island shore, the tasteful houses prettier to his eyes than the English villas, and the appearance of wealth, comfort, and beauty on each side of the Narrows astonish him and excite his warmest admiration.

If he is fortunate, the day is warm, sunshiny, and tempered by a delicious breeze coming from the sea. That cloud looms at the head of the bay—that, he is told, is New York, the gateway to the land of promise, and he points it out to Mrs. Giles and the children to their intense satisfaction.

Inspection of Steerage Passengers at Quarantine by the New York Health Officer. Scribner's Magazine, September 1877. GGA Image ID # 1478747997

A little towboat brings the doctor on board—not the ship's doctor, but the health officer of the port, who inspects the steerage and the emigrants. As there are no cases of infectious disease, the steamer is allowed to proceed to the city. Then another little steamboat appears, bringing the boarding officer employed by the Commissioners of Emigration.

Young Immigrant in Steerage Sitting on Some Luggage -- All There. Scribner's Magazine, September 1877. GGA Image ID # 14774ba931

The boarding officer is an officious Irish American gentleman who ascertains the number of passengers on board and their health. He is also instructed to examine the steerage and listen to all complaints, but he retreats below as soon as he comes on board, and we are much mistaken if he is not found at the bar taking a quiet " nip " with the chief steward.

Meanwhile, the emigrants on deck look wistfully toward the city, with its high roofs, spires, and towers. Many are anxious and sick at heart, almost afraid to enter the new and unfamiliar world now that they are at its portals.

Some happy ones expect friends to meet them and learn about the kind of offices in Castle Garden, which they explain to others who could be better informed. Gradually, the trees and lawns of Battery Park come into view, with the curious-looking building in the form of a rotunda at the water's edge.

The steamer's pulse ceases to beat, and several large barges are towed alongside. The baggage is brought from the hold and transferred with the emigrant passengers to these tenders.

There is the same confusion and uproar as at the outset of the voyage. The bewildered people are browbeaten and driven about in the most inconsiderate manner. A loud laugh is heard for an instant. An old lady from Ireland has put her tin cooking utensils underneath the cord that binds her heavy trunk.

As the trunk is tossed down the gangway, the sailors fail to keep "this side up with care," and saucepans and basins suddenly collapse. A steamboat takes them in tow when the barges are loaded while the great steamer proceeds to her pier in the North River.

Castle Garden has been famous for generations. First, it was a fort, and then it was converted into a summer garden for the sale of chocolate, soda, and ice cream. In 1832, it was the scene of a grand ball given to the Marquis Lafayette, and in 1843, President Tyler received a reception within its walls. Afterward, it became a concert hall, in which Jenny Lind and many other celebrated singers made their first appearance in America.

Steerage Passengers Debarking at Castle Garden. Scribner's Magazine, September 1977. GGA Image ID # 14775908cf

The Board of Commissioners of Emigration was created in May 1847, and Castle Garden was selected as a convenient and suitable entrepot for immigrants, and so it remains. It was partly destroyed by fire on 9 July 1876. Still, it has been rebuilt with a few changes that do not materially alter its appearance.

The lower walls are the same as those that formed the old fort, and the embrasures through which the cannon peeped are sometimes selected by the immigrants for smoke, rest, or meditation.

From May 1847 to 20 March 1876, the laws of the state required the owners or agents of vessels arriving at the port with immigrants to give a bond of $300 for each passenger, conditioned to indemnify every city, town, or county in the state against any charge on account of the relief or care of the passenger during the first five years of his residence in the country.

The same laws enabled the owners or agents to commute the bond by paying a certain sum known as " head-money" (which varied at different times, the highest being $2.50 and the lowest $1.50) to the Commissioners of Emigration, whose duty it became to pay the expenses incurred by the immigrant in any poorhouse or hospital owing to his infirmity or poverty.

The large steamship companies opposed the exaction, and on 20 March, x876, they obtained a decision through the Supreme Court of the United States that the law was unconstitutional and void. The expenses of the Commissioners for the current year (1877) are defrayed by an appropriation of $200,000 made by the state; however, an effort will be made at the next session of Congress to obtain further authority for the collection of head money.

The barges are soon moored to the pier at Castle Garden, where the custom-house officers are waiting to examine the baggage. Battered old chests, barrels, and incredible bundles of clothes and bedding are packed together, much against the wishes of their owners, who are in terror of losing all their worldly treasures.

A Peep at New York from Castle Garden Embrasure. Scribner's Magazine, September 1877. GGA Image ID # 14778d395e

The officers then set to work with turned-up sleeves and face expressive of repugnance. Some unmarried men have no baggage except a small bundle tied in a handkerchief and slung over a stick.

Some forlorn women who embarked at Queenstown have no bonnets and no shawls or mantles. The whole wealth of the Italians consists of their organs, harps, fiddles, and the clothes they wear. They have traveled from country to country and from town to town, earning their bread on the way, and in the same manner, they will travel to their destination in America.

Other immigrants with families are overloaded with baggage and have large sums of money in their pockets.

At one time, all passengers were questioned at Castle Garden as to the amount of money in their possession, but they scarcely ever gave truthful answers. Credible evidence, however, assumes that one hundred dollars at least is the average amount in the possession of each person and that the average quantity of property brought by each is worth fifty dollars more.

In 1869, two hundred and fifty-nine thousand immigrants arrived at Castle Garden. Thus, their contribution to national wealth was almost equal to thirty-nine million dollars. However, as large as this sum is, it becomes trifling in comparison with the capital value of the immigrant's labor.

What Is It? Young Immigrants at Castle Garden. Scribner's Magazine, September 1877. GGA Image ID # 14779c8fb7

A well-known social economist estimates the capital value of the male laborer to be one thousand five hundred dollars. The female's capital value is seven hundred fifty dollars, making the average value of persons of both sexes eleven hundred and twenty-five dollars.

Between May 1847 and January 1870, four million, two hundred and ninety-seven thousand immigrants were deposited in New York. Adding to the capital value of each immigrant and the estimated value of his personal property, we find that immigration increased the national wealth by more than five billion dollars in less than thirty-three years.

For several years before 1874, total immigration into the United States was at the rate of three hundred thousand persons a year, and the country gained nearly four hundred million dollars annually from the traffic, or more than one million a day.

Less than five percent of the immigrants could be more productive. Still, this worthlessness is more than counterbalanced by the large number whose education is superior to that of the ordinary laborers.

When the inspectors have "passed" the baggage, it is checked and sent to a room prepared for its reception. The immigrants are examined by a medical officer, who ascertains that no paupers or criminals are among them and that no persons afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases have escaped the doctor at Quarantine.

There is too much ordering about for Giles's liking, but he quickly takes his place. The immigrants are then ushered into the dome, a high-roofed circular building, into which ventilation and light are admitted by a dome seventy-five feet high.

The floor is divided into small enclosures containing a post office, telegraph office, money exchange, and restaurant. As the crowd files in, each passenger is detained for a moment at the registration desk, where his name, age, nationality, destination, the vessel's name, and date of arrival are carefully recorded and preserved.

The total number of immigrants who landed at Castle Garden in 1873 was 267,000. The destination of 96,000 was the state of New York, 44,000 the middle states, 99,000 the western and north-western states, 24,000 the eastern states, and of course, the southern states.

The whole number arriving in 1874 was 149,584, the destination of 52,444 being the state of New York, 22,630 in the middle states, 56,615 in the western and north-western states, 12,237 in the eastern, 3,506 in the southern states, and 2,152 in Canada. In 1875, the total number of immigrants was 99,093; in 1876, the total was 113,979.

When registration is complete, a Clerk announces the names of the passengers who have friends waiting for them or for whom letters, telegrams, or remittances have been received, and delivery is made to the persons answering.

Other passengers who wish to communicate with acquaintances or relatives are referred to clerks who speak and write their language. Their messages are transmitted from the telegraph desk or by mail.

The railroad companies have agents in the building, and passengers who wish to leave the city are shown to the ticket offices. Their baggage is rechecked and conveyed to the train or depot without charge.

Those who want rest are permitted to remain in the rotunda, where coffee, tea, milk, and a small loaf of bread are supplied for ten cents. If they choose, they can go to one of the boarding houses licensed by the commissioners, which offer food and lodging at the modest price of a dollar or a dollar and a half. But we hope that Giles will not be induced to enter one of these dens.

With a few exceptions, they are located in an unhealthy neighborhood, frequented by dangerous characters, and conducted by depraved men and women. We pity the immigrant who trusts himself to them. They are defective sanitarily and defective morally and ought not to be sanctioned by the commissioners.

During his visit to America eighteen months ago, Joseph Arch expressed his gratification at the care with which immigrants are treated at Castle Garden but regretted that no provision was made for the accommodation of passengers who were detained in the city for a few days.

They are compelled to trust themselves to the licensed boarding houses, which are not, I am assured. They are very good places for their morals or comfort.

* * * I have an interest, therefore, in suggesting to you the establishment of an Immigrant Home, where cleanliness and comfort would be combined with the protection so freely extended by the commissioners in other matters; this, I should imagine, might be rendered self-supporting."

Immigrant Boarding House Near the Battery in New York. Scribner's Magazine, September 1877. GGA Image ID # 14780c77e9

There is also a labor bureau attached to Castle Garden, and if Giles had not an opening in view for himself, he might present himself as a candidate. Neither the laborer nor the employer is charged a fee, and the latter is required to prove his responsibility.

In 1873, 25,400 emigrants, including 14,400 agricultural or common laborers, 3,500 mechanics, and 7,000 house servants, were employed. In 1874, 10,148 men and 6,762 women were employed; in 1875, 7,008 men and 5,432 women were employed; and in 1876, 5,394 men and 4,821 women were employed.

The immigrants are guarded against swindlers by a broker's office in the rotunda, where coin is exchanged for bills at the lowest current rates and where valuables may be deposited without charge. So Giles ought to be grateful, and the vessel owners ought not to envy the small amount of "head money" that secures so many benefits to their best patrons.

The last stage of the immigrant's progress is accomplished by rail; as far as the vehicle is concerned, it is the least pleasant. An immigrant train is usually made up of dingy old passenger cars with few windows or means of ventilation. It runs on special time and is managed by conductors of more than ordinary brutality.

Each seat has its occupant, and the car's atmosphere becomes almost suffocating. Smoking is allowed in all the cars, which are filled with fumes of sickening density.

At Albany, Rochester, and Buffalo, commissioners' agents examine the passengers and assist them with information; however, it is not their business to find fault with the railroad company, and they never do.

The long, dusty days lapse into long, hot, dreary nights. The passengers turn as well as they can in the space of their seats and groan in the vain endeavor to get a wink of refreshing sleep. But after about fifty-six hours of misery, Giles arrives at his new home and, with his wife and little ones, stands gazing at a broad expanse of unfilled land.

His work is before him and will only be complete once the waste has been cleared and the earth has yielded a tribute to his industry.

Plate Representing the Landing of General Lafayette at Castle Garden. Scribner's Magazine, September 1877. GGA Image ID # 147855d530

"The Immigrant's Progress," in Scribner's Monthly: Illustrated Magazine for the People, New York: Press of Francis Hart & Co., Vol. XIV, No. 5, September 1877, p. 577-588.

The Immigrant Experience at Castle Garden (1877)

A Must-Explore Historical Resource

The article “The Immigrant Experience at Castle Garden - September 1877” vividly captures the transformative journey of immigrants arriving at Castle Garden, New York City’s primary 19th-century immigration processing center. Through detailed descriptions of the immigration process, challenges, and emotions, it presents a powerful narrative of resilience and hope. This resource is an essential tool for teachers, students, genealogists, family historians, and history enthusiasts aiming to connect with the lives of those who shaped America.

Why This Resource is Crucial for Understanding Immigration History

1. Educational Significance
   • Teachers and Students: A vivid account to explore themes of immigration, societal challenges, and cultural integration during the 19th century.
   • Genealogists and Family Historians: Provides a historical backdrop for tracing ancestors and understanding their journey through Castle Garden.
2. Emotional and Historical Insight
   The article offers a personal and detailed portrayal of immigrants’ hardships and hopes, highlighting the human side of the immigration story.
3. Practical Value for Researchers
   The descriptions of the processing stages, travel conditions, and Castle Garden’s facilities help contextualize historical documents and records for more accurate interpretation.

Key Highlights of the Immigrant Experience

• Preparations and Travel
  Immigrants like Giles often made life-altering decisions amidst financial and social hardships, inspired by the hope of a better future in America.

• Conditions Aboard Immigrant Ships
  Vivid descriptions of steerage life reveal the harsh realities of overcrowding, limited ventilation, and substandard food, alongside moments of resilience and camaraderie.

• Arrival at Castle Garden
  Immigrants were processed through a series of stations, including medical inspections, registration, and labor placements, ensuring their transition into American society.

• The Labor Bureau and Beyond
  Castle Garden’s labor bureau offered vital support, connecting immigrants with employment opportunities across the U.S., shaping their new lives.

Historical Impact

Castle Garden’s role as a gateway for millions of immigrants underscores its significance in the fabric of American history. From harsh travel conditions to the transformative opportunities offered upon arrival, the experience encapsulates the resilience and determination of those seeking a new life.

Call to Action

Dive into this Castle Garden section to gain unparalleled insight into the immigrant journey during the 19th century. Whether you're researching ancestry, teaching about immigration, or exploring historical narratives, this resource brings to life the struggles and triumphs of those who helped shape the nation. Don’t miss the chance to connect with the past and uncover stories of perseverance and hope.