Ellis island

-Religious persecution -Economic hardship -political oppression

Immigration to the U.S., 1860-1920 The immigrants left many different countries including Ireland, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Poland, China, and countries in which people of Jewish descent reside.

Ellis Island was the main immigration center for the United States from 1892-1954. Ellis Island is located on an island in New York Harbor. It was a place where immigrants began the process of becoming an American.

Immigrants typically paid $50 for the one-way passage to America. By 1890, most people traveled by steam powered ships in "steerage," which was the ship's bottom deck. In steerage, separate dormitories were formed for single men, single women, and families. The air in steerage filled with odors of spoiled food, sea-sickness and unclean people.

Once at Ellis Island the immigrants were pinned with numbered tags to their clothes. This was a means to identify each immigrant.

Immigrants left their belongings in the Baggage Room and retrieved them when they exited Ellis Island. The first test the immigrants faced was climbing the steep steps to the Great Hall. This began to be known as the "six second medical exam."

Doctors only had a few seconds to examine each immigrant for a variety of ailments. The doctors focused on cholera, favus (nail and scalp fungus), mental impairments and trachoma. Trachoma was a highly contagious eye infection that could result in blindness and/or death. The examiners used a button-hook to check the inner eyelids. This was a short, but painful experience.

After the rigorous medical exam, immigrants would wait in the Great Hall. Immigrants were then asked a series of questions, including name, age, marital status, occupation, and whether the immigrant had time spent in prison. A single woman was not allowed to leave Ellis Island without a male relative.

the doctors would wait at the top of a large flight of stairs to test mental health,disease,or physical problems

Doctors would use a button hook to check for trachoma

Finally, immigrants left the Great Hall and descended down the "Stairs of Separation." This area received this name because it was here that many families parted ways. Immigrants would leave Ellis Island on a ferry to either New Jersey or Manhattan. Only 2% of immigrants coming to America through Ellis Island were deported. Typically, it took 3-5 hours to process through Ellis Island.

Immigrants had the opportunity to exchange money from their homeland into American dollars. After 1909, the law required each immigrant to possess $20 to enter the United States. At this point immigrants could purchase train tickets to reach their final destination.