Ellis Island

Ellis Island, which was an immigration station, opened in 1892. Ellis Island was a place where Immigrants from all over Southern and Eastern Europe, Greece, Serbia and Hungary to name a few came to have a chance at getting into America. Immigrants came to Ellis Island for many different reasons such as war, drought, famine, religion, and political and economic oppression. Although coming to Ellis Island was one step closer to freedom, the immigrants still had many more obstacles to face. The immigrants had to face numerous medical inspections, and also legal inspections to make sure they were fit to come to America.

Many Immigrants from many different countries for many different reasons, some came just to seek freedom, others came to give their families a better life, and other numerous reasons. Most come from just about every part of Europe, some of these immigrants being Jewish. The Jewish immigrants came to Ellis Island to escape political and economic oppression in Russia and Eastern Europe, Nearly 484,000 Jewish immigrants came to Ellis Island in 1910 alone. Italian immigrants came to Ellis Island in hopes of escaping poverty in their country. The non - European immigrants such to Ellis Island to escape drought, famine, religious persecution, and war. All immigrants had one thing in common though, they all had big dreams and high expectations for the new world. For the immigrants, coming to Ellis Island was only half the battle, passing the health screenings would be one of the most difficult tasks that the immigrants would have to face.

The purpose of Ellis Island was to protect the public health of the United States and to also increase the work force. During the inspection, every 2 out of 10 immigrants were marked with blue chalk, this meant that the immigrant was to be inspected furthermore. For many of the immigrants the inspections were often frightening, not only frightening, but also very humiliating, some immigrants stated that the doctors would make them get undressed in front of one another which was very uncommon and uncomfortable for the immigrants. Out of these immigrants who were held for further inspection, 9 out 100 of them were kept for a mental inspection. The immigrants were given tests to make sure they were mentally okay to go into America, they had 3 attempts to pass the test, if failed 3 times, the immigrant would be deported. One woman who was deported was asked the following question, "how many feet does a horse have". The woman was so confused by the question that she thought they were tricking her, and was deported for not being able to answer this question.

Different immigrants had a different view about Ellis Island. Some saw it as a police station and others saw it as a palace. One woman stated that there is one thing she would never forget about Ellis Island and that was that while the immigrants waited in these long lines, they were given donuts and milk,