Immigration Before the Quota - 1924
Introduction
The article "Immigration Before the Quota - 1924" provides an overview of the period in American immigration history before the implementation of the Immigration Act of 1924, which introduced strict quotas on the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States. The article examines the characteristics of immigration during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on the patterns, origins, and experiences of immigrants before these restrictive laws were enacted. It highlights how the absence of quotas led to diverse and large-scale immigration, significantly shaping the demographic and cultural landscape of the United States.
Castle Garden Immigrant Depot, NY. No Date circa the 1870s. Stereograph by A. J. Fisher, NY. Library of Congress # 2017648898. GGA Image ID # 148286dd3a
Immigrants, Unlisted, uninspected, with or without means of support so far as anybody knew or cared to see, were free to swarm onshore. The tumultuous crowd fled from their fetid quarters with a rush and a shout. It bounded onshore, becoming almost at once and by those simple acts citizens of the Great Republic!
Waiting for the cry of "All ashore!" the sea-worn steerage passengers of the coppered and copper-fastened brig Europa, twenty-one days out from Liverpool, hung over the rail. At the same time, the little merchant packet was being warped into her Berth at the foot of Wall Street, interfering with the preparations of the sailors for knotting her, stem and stern, to the pier.
In the long hours after they had seen the lighthouse on Cape Cod, relief washed over them; few of them had slept, and not many had prepared a meal, their routine having been interrupted by the glorious hope of a landing.
The steerage had been like chaos, with women packing trunks and chests and men tying up uncouth bundles. Children cry because they were neglected except for a push out of the way or a slap administered to give them something to cry for.
Then, this task was interrupted by a word, and on deck, the emigrants swarmed again, clustering round the bows to watch the sail drawing near, which brought the pilot.
Once on board and with the ship's guidance in his hand, by short tacks, she passed through the Narrows so close to shore at times that the delighted passengers could almost snatch a leaf from an overhanging tree. As they passed Staten Island and held their breath in fear lest a Quarantine officer should come out to detain the ship, they were captivated by the whitewashed buildings on the hillside and the scores of vessels lying here at anchor.
Sailing up the bay but too slow for their impatience, they finally saw New York, the outpost of the promised land! Houses and steeples took the place of waves and whitecaps! Governors Island, Castle Garden, the East River! Would the sailors never drop anchor? Their impatience was palpable, their anticipation almost unbearable.
The steerage passengers paid little attention to the boats clustering around the ship or to the shouting, waving people crowding the pier. Their single concern was their baggage.
Unlisted, uninspected, with or without means of support so far as anybody knew or cared to know, they were free to swarm on shore. The tumultuous crowd fled from their fetid quarters with a rush and a shout. It bounded on shore, becoming almost at once and by that simple act citizens of the Great Republic!
Yes, it was as easy as that—yesterday. These were the days of what is called "old immigration." Before the topic soon to become and continue to be a national worry was agitated—whether the hordes of foreign poor should be permitted to land on our American shores.
"These people have a right to come," cried a writer of 1837, "because the whole world is the patrimony of the whole world and, although they bring all the miseries of Europe with them, let them come if they can get here!"
Surviving the horrors of a passage in an emigrant ship was the real challenge. These ships, if they were a greyhound of that day, would occupy from eighteen to twenty-one days, but often the voyage would stretch to thirty, forty, and more. Yet, the immigrants persevered, showing remarkable resilience in the face of such adversity.
The privation they might have to endure in the new country and the misery they had left at home were insignificant besides the incidents of that awful voyage.
Today, it is different. Immigrants brought over by the great passenger fleet fare better than the cabin passengers of the rude 1840s. They are no longer herded like cattle; they are not compelled to furnish their food nor prepare it; they have their staterooms and deck; in a word, the drawbacks of a steerage passage nowadays are what the steerage passengers themselves supply. All they need dread is the Quota.
We have become so used to discussing the benefits and disadvantages of the Quota and the other immigration laws that preceded it on the State and Federal statute books that we have forgotten that Congress began to be interested in the subject only between 1837 and 1841. Laws were passed restricting ships to a limited number of emigrants, according to a certain rate.
At about the same time, laws were made in England to compel the provision of a fixed food supply for every emigrant embarking from a British port. For several years thereafter, these laws of either country remained ornamental. They were not enforced, nor did it seem likely that any legislation would reach and improve the hard lot of the immigrants.
Legislation has been grappling with the immigration problem for many years, and it's still a work in progress. However, it's important to note the progress we've made. The urgency of the issue was evident when the immigration flood had swollen before 1914 to more than a million annually. This led to significant changes in immigration laws, offering hope for a better future.
Long before the law of Quota was passed in 1917, other means had been discussed, and some measures tried, compelling immigrants to pass all sorts of tests or be deported. When the sailing vessel as a means of transport gave way to steamships, a reception place had to be provided. At the same time, the immigrants' claim to a right to enter was being considered.
When we reflect on the establishment of Ellis Island as a reception center for immigrants, we can appreciate the slow but significant progress we've made. The United States Government took it over in 1890 and opened it two years later. Before that, and for the same purposes, Castle Garden and, incidentally, the Barge Office had been used. Ellis Island, however, holds a special place in history as a symbol of our evolving immigration policies.
Around 1870, the Government first began to tackle the problem seriously, learning its early and elementary lessons of inspection at Castle Garden. Strange sounds and sights began to be seen and heard in that quaint building, around which still faintly lingers an aroma of society and Jenny Lind.
Are ancient employees of the Immigration Bureau still living and working? Do they recall the old days of Castle Garden, Barge Office, and the early occupation of Ellis Island?
Three or four of these worthies have been connected with the department for fifty years or more, and they happily are full of anecdotes of the old days.
A particularly vivid memory of Bookkeeper Murphy at Ellis Island is that he began business life at Castle Garden for a wage of $1,50 per week. He wasn't a bookkeeper then; he was employed to help "hustle the baggage."
Also, he used to see more immigrants in those days than he does now. From his ordinary View of the possible new citizens of the present, when all preliminaries settled, they passed out of the building on their way to the city.
"Friendly souls, I used to find many newcomers in those days, for mostly the grist was from Ireland, and it was from little old Ireland, so I came myself. Plenty of young lads were among them, and I could take them around the Battery and up as far north as Fourteenth Street, for there were no prisoners in Castle Garden then.
"Here and there, one of the young fellows would be after wanting to stay in New York, and these were the boys I showed the town after my work was done.
But mainly then, and it is near today, the Irish came over in families. There would be the old grandfather, the man, his wife, and their children; they come all together and after the 'free land.' Mostly, too, they went West to find it.
"That ignorant they were of what was before them, but nothing daunted! The oldest wasn't frightened at my talk of Indians and all the boys I scared up, for I liked to have my jokes.
They just shut their faces and nodded. There couldn't be anything worse than what they had been through, for they knew the big famine. And ignorant as they were, they didn't talk much to show it.
"I mind a little fellow who found a potato in the grass outside the garden and comes runnin' to his mother, crying:
"Mother, you need not be hungry anymore; they have potatoes here!"
"Was we crowded at Castle Garden? Well, mostly not. It was comfortable enough to what I have seen here. A handful, as we'd say now. Mostly Irish. Welsh and Cornish are coming over on the Black Ball Line and the Top Scott Line.
A jolly crowd, taking things as they come and singing at the top of the morning and night. Hardship beyond belief they had on some of the packets, but they made light of them and bore nobody a grudge.
They made up songs about the ships, and well, do I remember how they would laugh as they sang about the yellow meal, which was about all the food some ships provided and how tired they got of the color of it before they struck New York. Someone would start it, and they would all burst out:
Bad tuck to Captain Top Scoff,
And his dirty old yellow meal!
''Had they money to take them to their journey's end? Yes, mainly they had when they came as families, but only a few of the boys that came over alone have a bawbee.
It was customary then to let the young men do some work around the Garden, and I never knew of anybody going hungry. The immigrants with money to buy food were willing to share it with those who were strapped. And the hearty way they did it saved a man from feeling like a pauper.
"As I tell you, I was but a lad those days and just beginning life. And I've forgotten many things or remember them only when I hear somebody discoursing about old times. Still, I get right: all my time in Castle Garden was more of a picnic than it was work.
The people coming over was a class I understood; we thought about the same things, and when I got a chance to rest, I didn't run off home but could sit down in comfort and listen to one of the immigrants talk about Ireland. It isn't the same about here now, nor it couldn't be. This has grown to be a big business, and nobody has any time to waste in talk.'*
Another old employee at Ellis Island is Miss Prokupek of the Information Department. She began her long career in Castle Garden, has witnessed all the changes, and has heard (and refuted) all the criticisms aimed at the bureau since Washington took it over from Albany.
She had not missed a day in her long service of fifty years except during the war when a tiny part of the force was needed to answer the questions of the few immigrants who landed at Ellis Island in a little less than two years. This period of enforced inactivity is not pleasant for her to dwell upon.
Inspector Sven Smith, a Scandinavian-born, is Miss Prokupek's contemporary. Like her. he felt lost when the Island was full of soldiers and sailors, and his occupation was temporarily gone. He is at his inspection desk every day. He can do a more extended day's work there without weariness than most of his younger assistants. Said Sven Smith:
"I began at Castle Garden when the head tax of 50 cents was first levied on the immigrants. Colonel Weber, the late Congressman, had come over from Washington to take charge.
He was a fine man, a big-hearted man. If an immigrant proved that he was penniless, the Colonel used to lend him enough to pay his railway fare to where he wanted to go, and he took the money for this out of the head tax fund. I recollect that there was a row about it and an investigating committee.
"I never blamed the Colonel, for whoever got the help deserved it. It was a pleasing, upstanding crowd we used to get in those days at the old Castle, mostly strong young men with their wives, bound to be a credit to any country: no sniveling and all hoping for the best.
You could see these boys would all get work, and they did. It's different now with the Italians, Slovaks, and Poles. But I don't want to judge them; I guess they do their best.
"The accommodations at Castle Garden were pretty reasonable: oh yes. That's good, considering. When we had a crowd, and the barges kept bringing more people, we were hard put to find places for them all to sleep.
I've seen hundreds of men stretched out on the floor of the old Castle, and there wasn't any more room betwixt them than there is between sardines in a box.
But we got along all right and never knew how lucky we were until the Government said we couldn't stay at Castle Garden any longer and moved us to the Barge Office. There, we were up against it. We had to make beds frequently in the filing rooms and use the papers for mattresses.
"In those days, when anybody was detained for any reason, including observing a disease, we sent them to Ward's Island. A part of that Island was given up for our use."
The old Inspector stroked his head to write a reply to the question about the biggest number of immigrants that had to be housed in Castle Garden in his day. At last he said: "Well. It was in 1888, the blizzard year. A regular fleet of ships had to lie off because of the storm, and they all came up together. We had 9,000 to take care of, and it was pretty crowded.
"The best times I've seen around here—on Hill is Island—were in the first years we had the wooden buildings. Everybody was clean, comfortable, and happy. I don't know what there was about it, but the old wooden buildings seemed more homelike.
"Our job was more challenging then than now; we didn't have manifests and had to find out everybody's name and write it down. When you come to write down some of the outlandish names these people bring over, you find that it takes a lot of time.
I'm referring to the date when everything was different, to the time when people mostly came from my country or Great Britain. As soon as South Europe got wind of this country, about 75 percent of the immigration began coming from there—yes, easy—70 anyway."
After the fire destroyed the buildings on Ellis Island, the Bureau was taken back to the Barge Office to await the construction of new buildings and considerable enlargement. Then, said Sven Smith, lüs work in the Inspection Department was abridged as to hours, for it did not take so long to convey the immigrants to that center.
"Expedition in the work here does not always depend on our force in the building:" said he, "and it varies with steamboat companies. Some lines need to learn how to handle immigrants quickly, but the Italian lines do it faster.
When we know that an Italian ship is in with 1,000 steerage passengers, we get ready to look them over, for we are sure they will be here within three or four hours. And other lines take a day to get 400 immigrants over to the island."
If ever the case of The Immigrants vs. Ellis Island comes up for judgment in a court not presided over by Idle Gossip, stanch witnesses for the Bureau's good conduct are to be found in the ancient servants who have spoken here.
It may be true that the glamour of youth makes Castle Garden and the first state of Ellis Island look rosier than they actually were, but these veteran persons see no wrong with the present state of affairs.
They have heard immigrants describe in many tongues what may be translated as the detention pens of European ports, and none of the evils they enumerated is to be found in America.
The bookkeeper said, "Sure, and it's a palace they think they will enter once they pass the big door!" Sven Smith said, "When there was no quota, the immigrants of the old days couldn't fairly complain of Castle Garden; now, with the new quota, they will not be able to complain fairly of Ellis Island."
"Immigration Before There Was A Quota: Recollections of the Days When Castle Garden Received the Incoming Alien Crew," in The New York Times, 18 May 1924, p. 124.
Immigration Before the Quota - 1924
A Crucial Chapter in American Immigration History
The article "Immigration Before the Quota - 1924" provides a compelling exploration of a pivotal era in U.S. immigration history, prior to the introduction of restrictive quotas. It details the experiences of immigrants during the 19th and early 20th centuries, their journeys to America, and the impact of the Immigration Act of 1924. This resource offers an invaluable perspective for teachers, students, genealogists, family historians, and history enthusiasts, shedding light on the transformative period when America’s doors were open to diverse and large-scale immigration.
Why This Page is Vital for Exploring Immigration History
- An Educational Resource for Teachers and Students
- Captures the optimism, challenges, and experiences of immigrants arriving in America before modern immigration policies were implemented.
- Highlights how early immigration shaped America’s demographic and cultural fabric, making it an excellent case study for history curricula.
- A Treasure Trove for Genealogists and Family Historians
- Provides historical context for ancestors who arrived before the introduction of quotas, offering insights into their journeys and initial experiences in America.
- Features recollections of officials and employees who worked at Castle Garden and Ellis Island, giving a personal touch to immigration records.
- Inspiration for Historians and Enthusiasts
- Delves into the evolution of immigration laws and policies, from the chaotic early days at Castle Garden to the structured processes at Ellis Island.
- Highlights the resilience and determination of immigrants who shaped the American Dream.
Key Highlights of the Article
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The Arrival Experience:
Immigrants arrived unlisted, uninspected, and with little regulation, stepping onto American shores with hope and uncertainty. Castle Garden served as the primary gateway, handling the chaos with dedication and innovation. -
The Challenges of the Journey:
Early voyages were arduous, with steerage passengers enduring long, uncomfortable trips. Despite these hardships, immigrants arrived with optimism, seeking better lives. -
Transition to Modern Systems:
The article chronicles the transition from Castle Garden to Ellis Island, highlighting the implementation of regulations, inspections, and eventually quotas that drastically altered immigration dynamics. -
Personal Recollections:
Firsthand accounts from employees like Bookkeeper Murphy and Inspector Sven Smith bring the era to life, sharing anecdotes of crowded facilities, hopeful families, and the evolving processes that supported immigrant integration. -
Legislative Evolution:
Details the progression from unregulated immigration to the quota system, emphasizing the debates and changes that reshaped U.S. immigration policy.
Call to Action
This page provides a rich tapestry of stories and insights that illuminate a transformative period in American immigration history. Whether you're a teacher crafting a lesson plan, a genealogist tracing family roots, or a history enthusiast uncovering the past, this resource offers an unparalleled glimpse into the era before quotas. Explore the human stories, legislative milestones, and historical significance of Castle Garden and early immigration—key pieces of America’s heritage. Dive into this page to connect with the roots of the immigrant experience!
