By: Barnali Bose, Editor-ICN
NEW YORK: Liberty, one of the keywords in the Indian constitution was incorporated into it from the French Constitution.And what better way could there be to get a feel of it but at the Liberty State Park, the Ellis Island and the Liberty island located between New York City and Hudson County,New Jersey ?
Cruise to Ellis Island : Where the first immigrant set foot
We arrived approximately 30 minutes before our scheduled reserve time that was 8.30 am.We had to undergo a mandatory airport grade security screening prior to boarding the vessel.
We were all set for the cruise. One should take care to dress according to the weather to ensure a comfortable experience. My daughter, having been living there in the severe snowy winters for quite some years finds May-June quite pleasantly warm.
However, I had found on the previous day at the State Liberty Park that on windy days, at this time of the year too,it could be quite chilly. Therefore I was well-equipped to shield myself against the chilly winds.
For a visitor, the journey to Ellis island commences as it did for twelve million immigrants who had come to build a new home in America.
The ferry swayed away from the dock, sailing towards the island. My eyes were but glued on the Statue of Liberty holding her torch skywards, as we crossed the island on which she has been standing sentinel to the migrants since long. I was shaken out of my trance as we halted with a jerk and the ferry was anchored at Ellis Island. I realised it had taken us barely 15 minutes to reach there.
As I stepped out of the vessel and crossed over the narrow plank to tread on the island, my mind was transported to the early 20th century. I could almost visualise steamships sailing into New York Harbour filled with the anxious faces of numerous people.
These were the immigrants -the bearded Russian Jews,Irish farmers with weathered hands, Italians with waxed moustaches,Cossacks with elegantly crafted swords,Greeks in slippers, English in short knickers and Arabs in long robes.
Exhibits on three floors of the museum trace the island’s History. A documentary film brings to life the events of the time. The museum contains 5000 artifacts and hundreds of photographs.Even some of the trunks they had arrived with are on display.
In the six years since that United States won the War of Independence, America was in Thomas Paine’s words, “the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe.” Only two percent of the arriving immigrants were excluded from entry.
The two main reasons why an immigrant would be refused entry were for having a contagious disease that would endanger public health or if a legal inspector thought the immigrant was likely to become a public charge or an illegal contract labourer.
Men usually migrated first followed by their family when work and shelter was assured.Railroad companies eager for settlers to populate the west,advertised farmland and work opportunities for immigrants.
Those immigrants bound for Manhattan, met their relatives at the “kissing post” where many joyful yet tearful reunions took place.
In the 1940 s Ellis island had experienced a flurry of activity with the Japanese,German,and Italian citizens being detained on the island during World War 2. Suspected communists and fascists had bolstered the detainee population. Finally,on November 19, in 1954 the Ellis island closed doors.
Much later, during restoration, workers discovered graffiti hidden beneath successive layers of paint on the building’s walls.Names and initials, poems,sketches,and religious symbols among others were inscribed in pencil or the blue chalk that medical inspectors used.
“ Damned is the day I left my homeland”, wrote an Italian hand among many others each of which tells a tale. To conserve these, a fine arts conservator used methods developed to preserve the frescoes of Italy.
Currently inscribed with over 700,000 names, the American Immigrant Wall of Honour is situated just outside the Great Hall at Ellis Island. If you’re planning a visit to Ellis Island, and your ancestors had immigrated there,you can scan your family’s name and panel number beforehand to include a stop at the Wall of Honor as part of your day.
Perhaps one fourth of Americans can trace their family History to at least one person who entered Ellis Island Immigration Station and rode in a ferry to carve his future and that of his future generations.
During the early morning hours of June 15, 1897, a fire on Ellis Island burned the immigration station completely to the ground.
Although no lives were lost, many years of Federal and State immigration records dating back to 1855 burned along with the buildings that failed to protect them.
The United States Treasury quickly ordered the immigration facility be replaced under one very important condition, all future structures built on Ellis Island had to be fireproof.
On December 17, 1900, the new Main Building was opened and 2,251 immigrants were received that day.
Recently I saw a film ‘ The Immigrant’ that to a great extent depicts the sorry plight of some immigrants when men in power would take advantage of their vulnerability.
In this film, a woman immigrant discovers that her supposed saviour is in fact her predator. Abandoned by her relatives,she has no option but to give in to his demands.
The man however undergoes a moral redemption. He thereafter helps her to escape with her quarantined sister to California in pursuit of a better life. The film helped me relate to some of the incidents that were inscribed in the museum.
To most, Ellis island was an Isle of Hope, a stepping stone to a land of freedom. Yet to a few, it became an Isle of Tears and Misery, a place of detention and possible deportation.
