Ellis Island | Yearning to Breathe Free | 1

In the 19th century, economic turmoil, political unrest, and religious persecution drove record numbers of Europeans to American shores — making New York City the busiest port of entry. But new immigrants faced a dizzying array of conmen and thieves eager to prey on their confusion. In 1892, the U. S. government reined in the chaos by establishing a federal immigration depot on Ellis Island in New York Harbor. Over the next three decades, a small group of government inspectors would confront one of the largest mass migrations in the history of the world. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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• 0:00Lindsay Graham?

  Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.

• 0:18Lindsay Graham?

  Imagine it's a summer day in 1848. You and your wife are standing on the deck of a sailing ship that has just docked in Lower Manhattan. After six weeks at sea in a damp and crowded steerage cabin, you're relishing the fresh air and your first sight of New York City. You're anxiously waiting for your chance to disembark when a group of men walk up the gangplank to board the ship. One of them takes long strides toward you and your wife, bows his head and doves his cap, a grin spreading across his face.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  Well, good morning and welcome to New York City.

• 0:52Lindsay Graham?

  He extends a hand and the sunlight catches a silver ring on one of his fingers. You shake his hand firmly, marveling at the familiar crest on the ring. Are you an Irishman? Born and raised. Where do you folks come from? We're from Galway. Galway? Well, what do you know? So am I. What a coincidence. I must say, it's a real comfort to find a friendly face so many miles from home. Well, I am pleased to make your acquaintance. The man bends down and lifts your wooden trunk with ease. You hold out your hand to stop him.

• 1:22Speaker 01

  Oh, no, you don't need to do that. Don't worry about it. I'm a baggage handler.

• 1:26Lindsay Graham?

  He starts walking off with your trunk. Your wife grabs your arm in concern and you dash off after the man.

• 1:33Speaker 01

  Wait a minute. I appreciate the help, but I can handle the trunk just fine.

• 1:37Lindsay Graham?

  You finally catch up with him, but as he turns around to face you, his smile has disappeared. If you want the trunk back, it'll cost you a $15 hauling fee. What, $15? I don't have that kind of money. Well, it's no trouble. I'll store it for you at the tavern on the corner of Greenwich and Cedar Street. You can buy it back once you do have the money. Now, wait a minute. I did not agree to that.

• 1:59Speaker 01

  Yeah. Hey, come back here.

• 2:02Lindsay Graham?

  The man ignores your protests and disappears into the crowd. You turn around to face your wife.

• 2:08Speaker 04

  Now, don't worry, sweetheart. I'll sort this out. Everything's gonna be just fine.

• 2:16Lindsay Graham?

  She doesn't look persuaded. You knew starting over in America wouldn't be easy, but you never expected to face such cruelty and deception before you even set foot on land. Now, with all your possessions being held for ransom, a dream that brought you here feels impossibly out of reach.

• 2:37Speaker 06

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• 4:28Lindsay Graham?

  From Audible Originals, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story.

• 4:49Lindsay Graham?

  On our show, we'll take you to the events, the times, and the people that shaped America and Americans. Our values, our struggles, and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made, and we'll show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now.

• 5:08Lindsay Graham?

  In the mid-19th century, record numbers of Europeans arrived on American shores, fleeing economic turmoil, political unrest, and religious persecution. But after long journeys across the Atlantic, these immigrants stepped onto the bustling wards of Lower Manhattan only to be thrust into a world of chaos. With every ship that docked, bands of fast-talking sharks and swindlers descended, eager to prey on immigrants' confusion. These so-called immigrant runners lured unsuspecting newcomers into overpriced lodging, charged inflated rates for organizing transportation and handling baggage, and stole their belongings only to sell them back at a higher price. At this time, immigration regulation was left to the states, with New York overseeing

• 5:52Lindsay Graham?

  the nation's busiest port of entry. But as immigration soared to unprecedented levels toward the end of the century, it became clear that state oversight was no longer enough to manage what was clearly a national issue. So in 1892, the US government intervened by establishing Ellis Island, a federal immigration depot in New York Harbor. Over the next three decades, 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island in one of the largest human migrations in global history. As the port of entry for roughly 80% of American immigrants, Ellis Island became the focus of the nation's immigration policies, serving as both a gateway to the American dream and a barrier to the thousands who were detained or deported.

• 6:35Lindsay Graham?

  Ellis Island was also one of the nation's first large government programs, where inspectors, doctors, and other officials were tasked with interpreting vague and continually evolving federal immigration policies. And in their daily decisions, abstract debates took on human consequences, shaping millions of lives and the future of a modernizing nation. This is episode one in our three-part series on Ellis Island: Yearning to Breathe Free.

• 7:05Lindsay Graham?

  In the 1840s, immigration was a lucrative business for New York gang leader and Democratic Party boss Isaiah Reinders. The former professional gambler and knife fighter stood at the top of a chain of thieves, con men, railroad ticketing agents, tavern owners, and prostitutes who prowled the docks of Lower Manhattan. They were known as immigrant runners, shady predators who sought to profit from immigrants' confusion and ignorance. The money they made from swindling and extorting immigrants made its way up to Reinders, who ran his business with little interference from local authorities. He had his men steer newcomers to the saloons, brothels, and boarding houses he controlled, using the profits to power the local Democratic Party machine. And at that time, there were more immigrants for

• 7:49Lindsay Graham?

  Reinders to exploit than ever before. In the mid-19th century, the door to America was wide open. Roughly half a million immigrants arrived in the United States in the 1830s, but that number more than doubled in the 1840s, with 1.2 million people arriving in New York Harbor over the course of the decade. Nearly half of these were desperately poor Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Potato Famine. But there were also hundreds of thousands of Germans escaping their own crop failures and political upheaval. And when they landed in New York, there was no official processing or guidance. Immigrants simply walked off their ships to find their own way in a strange land. And the federal government took little interest in immigration. Instead, regulation was left

• 8:32Lindsay Graham?

  to the states. Some states passed laws to exclude criminals, paupers, and the sick, but enforcement was weak. In the absence of government regulation, exploitation ran rampant. Immigrant aid societies fought to protect these vulnerable newcomers, but they struggled to keep up with the massive influx. By 1847, New York's Irish and German aid societies joined together to urge the state government to intervene. The state responded by forming the New York Board of Commissioners of Immigration. And in 1855, this board established America's first official immigrant reception center at Castle Garden, a former fort on the southern tip of Manhattan in the area known as the Battery.

• 9:13Lindsay Graham?

  At Castle Garden, immigrants would have a place to exchange currency, purchase railroad tickets, receive medical care, and access reliable information about housing and jobs, free from the clutches of the immigrant runners. To pay for these services, the board charged shipowners a $1 a head tax for each immigrant they carried to American shores. But Isaiah Reinders and his henchmen refused to lose their business without a fight. On the day Castle Garden opened in August 1855, immigrant runners tried to crash through the doors, forcing one of the workers to drive them away at gunpoint. Reinders claimed that his goal was open, fair competition for businesses like his, insisting that it was unfair for the state to control immigrant processing and care. But in the meantime,

• 9:57Lindsay Graham?

  he had no qualms about vilifying the immigrants he claimed to be helping. He organized a mass protest of Castle Garden, posting flyers around the city urging citizens to gather in the name of protecting New York from disease and desecration by the sickly and loathsome paupers and refugees of Europe. And three nights after Castle Garden opened, 3,000 of his supporters took to the streets in a torchlit march. But local newspapers understood the true purpose of this protest, with one denouncing it as an attempt to throw the immigrants again into the hands of thieves who have grown rich by robbing strangers. So Reinder's efforts failed to shut down Castle Garden, and for the first time immigrants could enter the country without fear of fraud or exploitation.

• 10:39Lindsay Graham?

  One English immigrant praised Castle Garden as a great national refuge for the immigrant from all lands, and over the next 35 years, eight million people entered the United States through its doors. But in the 1880s, immigration skyrocketed once again, with five million new arrivals in that decade alone. Previously, most immigrants came from Britain, Germany, and Ireland, but now there were growing numbers of Jews and Orthodox Christians fleeing poverty, religious persecution, and political instability in southern and eastern European countries like Italy, Russia, Poland, and Austria-Hungary. In this new decade, steamships had made transatlantic travel safer, faster, and cheaper, and therefore more accessible to working-class Europeans than ever before.

• 11:23Lindsay Graham?

  So most of the new arrivals were illiterate and unskilled workers who sought employment in America's booming industrial economy. This surge in immigration fueled anti-immigrant sentiment among native-born Americans. Newspapers and magazines devoted increasing space to the topic of immigration, with some writers warning that foreigners would carry European-style corruption and instability to American shores, endangering democracy itself. The Chicago Times declared that "the socialists, anarchists, nihilists, lunatics, beggars, and other social dregs from the old world threatens the destruction of our national edifice." And while most Americans supported immigration in principle, consensus began to grow around

• 12:04Lindsay Graham?

  the idea of screening out the undesirable, based on their mental, physical, and moral characteristics. Another newspaper declared, "What we need is the inspection and sifting of intending immigrants." Another argued for the welcoming of the intelligent, industrious, and honest foreigners, but the highest and strongest barriers for the worthless human rubbish. So in the face of this mass influx and turning public opinion, the federal government moved to take control of immigration away from the states. The shift began with the 1875 Supreme Court case Henderson v. Mayor of New York, which affirmed federal authority over immigration and prohibited states from collecting head taxes from steamship companies for the immigrants they transported.

• 12:47Lindsay Graham?

  Congress followed with its own measure in 1882, passing a law excluding criminals, paupers, and those likely to become public charges, meaning people not able to take care of themselves. Congress also placed immigration oversight in the hands of the U.S. Treasury Department. That same year, legislators succumbed to pressure from white labor unions on the West Coast by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred nearly all Chinese laborers and made race a basis for exclusion for the first time, principally impacting immigration through the port of San Francisco. And finally, in 1885, Congress again responded to the demands of labor organizers by passing the Alien Contract Labor Law, which prohibited employers from importing foreign workers

• 13:30Lindsay Graham?

  under binding contracts, often for lower wages. It was a victory for labor unions, hoping to protect wages and stop companies from using immigrant contract workers as strikebreakers. And to enforce these new federal laws, the Treasury Department drew up contracts with state agencies like New York's Board of Commissioners, which ran Castle Garden. But with immigration surging in the 1880s, and more than 70% of new arrivals entering through the port of New York, Castle Garden was being pushed to its breaking point. And without revenue from the state head tax, conditions deteriorated. Efforts to protect immigrants from runners declined, and outside the walls of Castle Garden, immigrants once again ran a gauntlet of predators, eager to exploit their confusion

• 14:13Lindsay Graham?

  for profit. Imagine it's July 1887, outside Albany, New York, and you're on board a third-class carriage on a westbound train on the New York Central Railroad. Yesterday, you arrived in New York City with your three children after a long journey from Poland. Now you're headed to Chicago, where your husband has been living for the past two years. You sit on a stiff wooden bench with your children, watching the unfamiliar scenery roll past. Tickets, please. You turn to find a conductor standing in the aisle, holding out his hand. You reach into the small person in your lap and pull out four tickets, your hand trembling as you pass them to him. He holds them up to his glasses and frowns.

• 14:57Lindsay Graham?

  "Oh, man, these tickets are no good. I'm going to need you to get off at the next station." "I don't understand. You're on the wrong train, man." "But I'm going to Chicago." The man at the station said this was the train for Chicago. "This train goes to Chicago via Albany and Buffalo, but these tickets are for a different route. You paid to go from New York to Albany, to Troy, to Rutland, to Bellas Falls, to Springfield, then back to Albany, then on to Buffalo, and then finally Chicago." You shake your head, trying to make sense of this, while your son stirs uneasily beside you. "I'm sorry, I don't follow, sir. I'm trying to tell you that these tickets are only valid as far as Albany." "But the man at Castle Garden said..." "Sounds like the man at Castle Garden took you for a ride.

• 15:40Lindsay Graham?

  Every transfer between rail lines means more money in his pocket." "He cheated me?" "It happens all the time. They take advantage of folks who can't read English. We're going to be stopping briefly in Schenectady. You better start gathering your things." The conductor walks away. You grab your carpet bag and get your children to their feet. "All right, come along. I guess we have to get off now." Curious passengers turn their heads as your family hurries down the aisle. You stumble as the train slows to a stop, fear rising in your chest. You have no idea where you'll go next, or how you'll afford to get there, when the little money you brought to America is already gone.

• 16:22Lindsay Graham?

  In the 1880s, immigrants at Castle Garden were at the mercy of railroad companies that overcharged them, sent them to the wrong destination, or booked them on unnecessarily lengthy routes involving multiple transfers to increase fees. But in 1887, these practices caught the attention of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. He launched a campaign against Castle Garden in the pages of his New York World, and had a personal interest in the welfare of immigrants. Born in Hungary, he had immigrated to the U.S. through Castle Garden himself as a penniless teenager. In the years since, he had made a name for himself as a crusading journalist, and in 1885, he used his paper to raise money for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, installed

• 17:04Lindsay Graham?

  in New York Harbor with a famous inscription, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." In the years to follow, this statue became a powerful symbol of freedom and hope for millions of immigrants, and now Pulitzer turned his paper against Castle Garden, denouncing it as the disgrace of the nation. A series of articles accused officials of granting a monopoly to a railroad cartel that fixed fares and exploited newcomers, and this scrutiny drew the attention of President Grover Cleveland and Congress, who launched investigations. They found that baggage handlers, railroad agents, and currency exchanges were fleecing immigrants. But rampant corruption and abuse weren't the only problems. Congress concluded that the facilities were inadequate to handle the sheer numbers of

• 17:49Lindsay Graham?

  immigrants, and that inspections were rushed and ineffective. So in February 1890, the Treasury Secretary notified Castle Garden officials that he was terminating their contract. A few months later, on April 18, 1890, Castle Garden closed its doors for good. To replace it, Congress resolved to build a new federal immigration facility. For a location, legislators selected Ellis Island in Upper New York Harbor, a few hundred yards from the New Jersey Shore. This three-acre island was already owned by the federal government, and while it was remote enough to keep immigrant runners away, it was still close to Manhattan and the railroad lines connecting to the rest of the country. Over the next two years, workers dredged deeper channels, built docks, and constructed

• 18:34Lindsay Graham?

  a reception building on Ellis Island. In the meantime, immigrants were processed at a makeshift site at the old barge office on the Battery in Manhattan. And while construction work was underway, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1891. This expanded the categories of exclusion listed in the 1882 law to include idiots, the insane, those suffering from serious diseases, and those guilty of felonies and crimes of moral turpitude. Excluded immigrants would be sent home at the expense of the steamship companies that brought them. So now, steamship lines had a financial incentive to screen passengers before departing from Europe. The law also placed immigration fully under federal control and gave sweeping authority

• 19:16Lindsay Graham?

  to government inspectors, whose decisions were final unless personally overturned by the Treasury Secretary. Immigrants would have no access to the courts to appeal these decisions. This 1891 law marked a turning point in American immigration policy. Congress had transformed a loosely managed local process into a centralized federal system. But at Ellis Island, officials would soon discover the difficulties of separating the desirable from the undesirable, as they came face to face with the daily stream of desperate people seeking new lives in America.

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• 21:31Lindsay Graham?

  On January 1st, 1892, a seventeen-year-old Irish immigrant named Annie Moore bounded down a gangplank to step ashore on Ellis Island. She and her two younger brothers had braved a twelve-day journey across the Atlantic in crowded and unsanitary conditions. At last, their steamship, the SS Nevada, had sailed past the Statue of Liberty and arrived in the waters surrounding New York City. Cheering crowds greeted Moore as she became the first immigrant to arrive at the new federal immigration station on Ellis Island. Officials asked her a few questions and then signed her into the entry book. Soon after, she and her brothers were reunited with their father already on American soil. Annie Moore was one of the seven hundred immigrants processed on Ellis Island's opening

• 22:16Lindsay Graham?

  day, and as a rosy-cheeked, English-speaking young woman, she made for a convenient poster child for the new processing center. But most of her fellow third-class passengers were Russian Jews. Wealthier first- and second-class passengers didn't pass through Ellis Island at all, but disembarked in Manhattan and received only a brief inspection because officials assumed their finances made them unlikely to become public charges. But on Ellis Island, immigrants endured more scrutiny. One by one, the new arrivals entered the depot and walked up a double staircase to the second-floor registry room. Medical inspectors watched them as they climbed the stairs, looking for any obvious physical difficulties such as limping or labored breathing.

• 22:59Lindsay Graham?

  Then there, on the second floor, immigrants filed into lines for a legal inspection. Each line ended in a desk with a clerk, whose job was to cross-examine them, verifying information from the ship's manifest and making sure they did not fall under any category of exclusion. Contrary to popular myth, inspectors did not arbitrarily change names that were difficult to spell or pronounce; they simply checked information against manifests. Any name changes typically occurred before immigrants departed for Europe or during the naturalization process. Regardless, once admitted, immigrants of any name could access railroad ticket counters, currency exchanges, and a lunch counter. The process usually took anywhere from three to five hours.

• 23:43Lindsay Graham?

  Once immigrants had passed their inspections, they were free to board ferries to Manhattan or Jersey City. Very few were denied entry. And in the first two years after Ellis Island opened, only about one immigrant out of every two hundred was barred from entering the country and sent back to Europe. One of the most common reasons for exclusion was contagious disease, and fears for public health were at the heart of the first major crisis at Ellis Island in the wake of the arrival of the steamship Macilia on January 30th, 1892. The Macilia carried seven hundred men, women, and children who endured a stormy three-week crossing in crowded steerage conditions. Nearly three hundred of them were Jewish immigrants who had spent months wandering Europe after their expulsion from Russia.

• 24:26Lindsay Graham?

  But as these tired and hungry passengers disembarked on a frigid January day, the man in charge of Ellis Island Colonel John Weber watched in frustration. Many of the passengers were clearly in poor health, and he was outraged that steamship officials had forced them to cross the harbor to Ellis Island in an open barge. He soon fired off an angry letter to the New York Times about the steamship company's inhuman, if not criminal, handling. Weber was a former Republican congressman, appointed as commissioner of Ellis Island after helping President Benjamin Harrison win the party's nomination in the 1888 election. This was common, as through most of the nineteenth century, incoming presidents awarded government jobs to supporters, friends, and political allies.

• 25:10Lindsay Graham?

  And like many of his fellow beneficiaries of the political patronage system, Weber was inexperienced. He admitted, "I took the business of immigration commissioner with as little knowledge of it as a man who never had seen an immigrant." But he was determined to learn as much as he could. While Ellis Island was still under construction, he traveled to Europe to investigate the causes of immigration. And after witnessing the violent persecution of Russian Jews under Tsar Alexander II, he wrote, "They hang over me like a nightmare: emaciated forms, the wan faces, the deep, sunken cheeks. It is inhumane of us to push these people back into the pit from which they have crawled." After his travels, Weber returned to the United States with a newfound sympathy for those who sought refuge at the Gates-Bellis Island.

• 25:55Lindsay Graham?

  And that included the Russian Jews who traveled on the Macilia. Following brief inspections, nearly all the Macilia's passengers were admitted to the United States. But just days later, New York City health officials traced a typhus outbreak back to the ship. Imagine it's late at night in February 1892, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. You're huddled in bed with your five young children in a crowded tenement apartment provided for you by a local Jewish charity. Less than two weeks have passed since you arrived at Ellis Island, and you're sick with a fever, and your head is throbbing. Still, you're busy tending to your son Pincus and your daughter Clara, who are also sick.

• 26:37Lindsay Graham?

  You press a cold washcloth to Clara's head and frown, wondering when your husband will return from his job in the garment district. When you jump as the door to the room bursts open, a man wearing a white coat steps inside with a police officer following in his wake. New York City Health Department. You pull your children closer. "You've no right to barge in here. Leave. Leave at once." But the health inspector ignores you and comes closer, peering down at your neck. You pull away from him. "What are you doing here?" "Uh, look at the rash she has. It's clearly typhus." You're about to protest when the inspector hunches over your five children. He singles out Pincus and Clara. "And these two look awfully pale and clammy. We'll have to quarantine them as well."

• 27:21Lindsay Graham?

  The inspector glances at the police officer and makes a note on his clipboard. You can feel your pulse quickening. "What do you mean quarantine us?" "Ma'am, you and your children have typhus fever. It's highly contagious, and we can't let it spread through these slums, so you'll be coming with us." "No, no, no, no, there must be some mistake." "It'll only be for a short while." "Please, we've just arrived. My children are exhausted. They'll be better in no time. They just need rest, that's all, just rest." "Well, you get plenty of that where we're going. You need to come along with us now." "No, no, no, my husband is at work. At least wait until he comes home. What about my other children?" "They'll have to stay here." You cling to your children in fear, but the inspector steps forward and prides them from your grasp, while the police officer drags you toward the door.

• 28:06Lindsay Graham?

  Fear washes over you. You've spent months wandering through Russia, Turkey, and France, searching for a place that would let you live in peace. America was supposed to be the end of your long journey, but now it seems that there's nowhere your family will be safe. In February 1892, New York City health authorities tracked down every Russian Jewish passenger from the Macilia. They quarantined dozens of them in a hospital on North Brother Island in the East River and confined hundreds more to their boarding houses. One of those passengers was immigrant Fire Mermer, who was living in a temporary lodging house on the Lower East Side with her husband and five children. Health officials forcibly removed the fever-stricken Fire and two of her children and placed

• 28:51Lindsay Graham?

  them in quarantine. Fire died one week later, but her children eventually recovered. The city's aggressive response contained the spread of typhus. But for those who believed in immigration restriction, this outbreak was proof that the newly opened Ellis Island was failing to bar entry to immigrants with contagious diseases. One of those in favor of more restrictions was New Hampshire Senator William Chandler, who launched an investigation into Ellis Island three weeks after the Macilia outbreak. In the end, Ellis Island's medical inspectors were cleared of any wrongdoing because carriers of typhus showed no obvious physical symptoms. But Chandler accused Commissioner John Weber of letting his sympathies get in the way

• 29:33Lindsay Graham?

  of his job, declaring that many of the Macilia passengers were "clearly paupers likely to become a public charge." Weber countered that most of the Macilia passengers were poor because of persecution rather than due to intrinsic character flaws, and he argued that Jewish charities would prevent them from becoming public charges. But Chandler insisted that immigration officials needed to step up their enforcement. So in early 1893, Congress responded to these concerns about immigration and public health by tightening existing laws. They passed a bill requiring steamship companies to increase their scrutiny of potential immigrants. So now, besides having to answer basic questions such as name, age, and occupation, immigrants

• 30:15Lindsay Graham?

  would be forced to answer a total of nineteen questions, including "by whom was passage paid, and ever in prison or almshouse, or supported by charity?" If an immigrant's answers to the Ellis Island inspector did not match the information on the ship's manifest, they would now face a hearing by a board of special inquiry. Over the next ten months, these boards of special inquiry decided the cases of more than seven thousand immigrants. Over sixteen hundred were excluded, twice as many as before, but still a tiny fraction of the total number of new arrivals. But concerns about lax immigration policy lingered, inspiring three Harvard classmates to found the Immigration Restriction League, or IRL, in 1894. One of these was twenty-five-year-old Bostonian Prescott Hall.

• 31:00Lindsay Graham?

  Americans like him, who had supported new laws limiting immigration, were known as restrictionists. And in his efforts, Hall declared, "Is there indeed a danger that the race which has made our country great will pass away, and that the ideals and institutions which it has cherished will also pass?" But he and his friends did not single out specific ethnicities or nationalities for wholesale exclusion. Instead, they demanded stricter laws to improve the quality of immigrants coming to America. And over the next two years, the I R L conducted investigations at Ellis Island, where officials gave them free rein. After making his first visit in the spring of eighteen ninety-five, Hall told the Boston Herald that he observed a close connection between illiteracy and a general undesirability.

• 31:44Lindsay Graham?

  So a few months later, I R L members decided to put this theory to the test, handing out pamphlets to immigrants who had told officials they could read. They concluded that ten percent of those claiming to be literate were lying. Then in April eighteen ninety-six, an I R L committee examined three thousand Italian immigrants at Ellis Island and concluded that more than two-thirds of that number were illiterate. Much to the frustration of the I R L, fewer than two hundred had been denied entry to the United States. In the wake of their investigations, the I R L began pushing for a literacy test for entry into the United States, working closely with the powerful Senator Henry Cavett Lodge. And as a result of these efforts, in early eighteen ninety-seven, Congress required immigrants

• 32:28Lindsay Graham?

  to be able to read twenty-five words from the U.S. Constitution in their native language. But the measure was vetoed by President Grover Cleveland during his final days in office. Cleveland defended immigration as a historic American value, arguing that literacy was no guarantee of a good, hard-working citizen. But despite this setback, the I R L would continue the crusade for a literacy test in years to come. In the meantime, the debate over immigration shifted to the administration of Ellis Island, which soon became embroiled in a crisis of corruption and bitter personal vendettas.

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• 33:37Speaker 01

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  Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of A Great Book with Barack Obama ad-free right now, plus access each audiobook discussed in the series. Download the Audible app today.

• 34:33Lindsay Graham?

  In the early hours of June fifteenth, eighteen ninety-seven, a fire broke out in the main immigration building on Ellis Island. The structure was mostly built of wood, and it quickly burned to the ground. Fortunately, no lives were lost, but immigration records dating back to the Castle Garden era were destroyed. And although investigators never determined the cause for the fire, newspapers blamed the federal government for flimsy construction. Shortly thereafter, the Treasury Department ordered the facility rebuilt with fireproof materials.

• 35:15Lindsay Graham?

  In the meantime, officials set up a temporary inspection center at the old barge office in the Battery in Lower Manhattan, the same building used after the closure of Castle Garden. So now, instead of going through Ellis Island, immigrant arrivals would disembark in Manhattan, and during this time, corruption, inefficiency, and abuse flourished, revealing the flaws of a patronage system that prioritized loyalty over merit. In eighteen ninety-seven, after Republican President William McKinley took office, he appointed a new head of the Immigration Bureau. Terrence Powderly was a famous labor leader who received his appointment as a reward for supporting McKinley's campaign. He was known for his combative personal style, and right away, he clashed with the man in

• 35:59Lindsay Graham?

  charge of Ellis Island and its temporary replacement facility, thirty-year-old Assistant Commissioner Edward McSweeney. McSweeney was a rarity in the patronage era, a savvy political survivor with allies among both Democrats and Republicans. He had received his Ellis Island post from McKinley's predecessor, Democrat Grover Cleveland, but managed to hang on to it under the new Republican administration. And by the time McKinley took office, McSweeney had developed a reputation as a dedicated public servant, and had even devoted himself to learning Italian to better handle the large number of Italian immigrants arriving in New York. But his new boss, Powderly, disliked him from the start. Powderly also held decidedly negative views toward immigrants themselves.

• 36:42Lindsay Graham?

  Though he himself was the son of immigrants, he described more recent immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe as semi-barbarous. And as time went on, Powderly would continually criticize McSweeney's approach to administering an increasingly chaotic immigration depot. By the end of the eighteen nineties, immigration levels were as high as ever, and conditions quickly deteriorated in the overtaxed temporary immigration facility. Thieves and predators returned, recreating the problems of Castle Garden, and complaints emerged that the staff at the temporary facility was inefficient, rude, and filled with political appointees who seemed to do little actual work. But even more concerning were reports of cruelty and abuse from inspectors.

• 37:25Lindsay Graham?

  Imagine it's January nineteen hundred, a bitterly cold day in New York City. You're still getting used to walking on solid ground after a long trip over the Atlantic as you make your way through a long line of weary people waiting to face the immigration inspectors. Someone taps you on your shoulder, and you turn around to find a sweaty-faced man wearing a starched, black jacket. Uh, hello, miss. Hello, sir. I'm one of the inspectors here. Now, why don't you tell me where you came from? I'm from Prague, sir. Prague, eh? Well, you've come a long way, haven't you? How old are you? I'm seventeen, sir. Seventeen? Oh, so young. And how do you expect to make a living in the United States?

• 38:07Lindsay Graham?

  I'm going to find work as a laundress, just like my cousin and my aunt. Well, that's not going to make you much money. You know, you might have difficulty getting through the inspection. Your heart starts to race as you consider the thought of being turned away. But you know, a little money might smooth things over.

• 38:24Speaker 04

  You're horrified as his meaning dawns on you.

• 38:26Lindsay Graham?

  But I hardly have any money at all. My uncle is supposed to meet me here and take me back with him to Chicago. Uh, well, then I'm afraid we're gonna have a problem. Oh, please, sir, is there really nothing I can do? Well, there might be a solution. I can get you through the inspection if you promise to meet me later at a hotel. You take a small step back, your eyes welling with hot tears. But what do you take me for? I'm a good Christian woman. Well, I'm sure you are. But what do you say? We have a deal? The thought of being back on a cramped and freezing ship is too much to consider, so you give him a small nod, and his lip curls into a grin.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  Well, there's a good girl.

• 39:06Lindsay Graham?

  The man clasps a hand on your shoulder and winks, then turns and walks away. You pull your coat tighter to your chest and close your eyes, praying that your uncle finds you before this man does, but fearing that you may have no choice but to bend to his will. In late eighteen ninety-nine, reports of staff misconduct at the barge office in Manhattan made their way to the Treasury Secretary, who launched an investigation. By early nineteen hundred, government investigators had collected two thousand pages of testimony documenting corruption and mistreatment of immigrants in the facility. Investigators accused inspectors of taking cash bribes, and in one account, a Czech

• 39:49Lindsay Graham?

  girl revealed that an inspector promised to pass her through if she agreed to meet him later at a hotel. But the most severe accusations were leveled against Registry Division Chief John Laterhiler, who reportedly harassed and groped young female immigrants. Investigators also blamed him for the suicide of a young Italian woman. They concluded that his boss, Edward McSweeney, countenanced extreme cruelty and impropriety in the methods of inspection, and recommended firing a dozen employees, McSweeney included. After reading the investigator's report, Terrence Powderly drew up formal charges against McSweeney and other named officials, but McSweeney had close friends in the Treasury Department who buried the report and quashed the charges.

• 40:32Lindsay Graham?

  Nevertheless, excerpts were leaked to the press, and in response, officials fired a handful of lower-level employees as scapegoats, but senior officials like McSweeney and Laterhiler kept their jobs. While this controversy unfolded, in mid-December nineteen hundred, the new Ellis Island Immigration Complex opened, welcoming more than two thousand immigrants through its doors on the first day. The new main building was a large, fireproof, red-brick structure with copper-covered towers. The centerpiece was the vast, second-floor registry room, known as the Great Hall, with iron railings dividing the inspection lines. The complex also included dining rooms, hearing rooms, showers, hospitals, and administrative

• 41:14Lindsay Graham?

  offices, and these imposing structures gave immigrants an immediate impression of America's grandeur and the federal government's power. But the new facilities did not fix the ongoing disarray and infighting within the ranks of the Immigration Service. In Washington, Powderly received regular updates from loyal insiders about McSweeney, whom he began referring to as McSwine. And at the same time, McSweeney recruited Powderly's secretary to spy for him, while telling his superiors that Powderly was trying to cut his throat. President McKinley largely avoided the thorny topic of immigration and paid no attention to the operations of the Immigration Service and this long, festering feud. But McKinley's time in office ended abruptly in September nineteen oh one, when he was

• 41:58Lindsay Graham?

  assassinated by an anarchist named Leon Sholgozh. Although Sholgozh was a U.S. citizen, born in the United States, he was the son of Polish immigrants, and the assassination nevertheless stoked anti-immigrant fears. Congress would soon add anarchist to the list of reasons an immigrant could be excluded. But also in the wake of McKinley's death, his energetic Vice President Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency. He inherited an Ellis Island in disarray with its two most important administrators at each other's throats. So Roosevelt would finally put an end to that feud and launch a campaign to root out corruption and mistreatment at Ellis Island, just as its inspectors confronted the greatest wave of immigration America had ever seen.

• 42:44Lindsay Graham?

  From Audible Originals, this is episode one of our three-part series on Ellis Island for American History Tellers. On the next episode, an era of reform begins at Ellis Island as a new commissioner takes control, vowing to crack down on corruption and tighten enforcement of federal law. Then Ellis Island experiences the busiest day in its history, while new restrictions based on physique and wealth spark outcry from immigrant groups. American History Tellers is only possible because of listeners like you, so thank you. And don't miss an episode. Be sure to follow American History Tellers on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now.

• 43:29Lindsay Graham?

  Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. And to find out more about me, including my other podcasts, my live show, the history tours I'm arranging, and all sorts of other things, go to historyishuman.com. That's historyishuman.com. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Limsey Graham, for airship. This episode is written by Ellie Stanton, edited by Dorian Marina. Senior producers Alida Rozansky and Andy Herman. Managing producer Desi Blaylock. Audio editing by Mohamed Shazib. Music by Thrum. Sound design by Molly Baugh. Executive producer for Audible, Jenny Lauer-Beckman. Head of creative development at Audible, Kate Nevin.

• 44:14Lindsay Graham?

  Head of Audible Originals North America, Marshall Louie. Chief content officer, Rachel Giatza. Copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC. Sound recording copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC.

• 44:43Speaker 04

  Inside a dive bar kitchen in upstate New York, the owner cracks open a box and discovers her chicken order misdelivered. All she has to work with are wings. So with a little culinary genius and a dash of luck, the Buffalo Wing is born. Well, so the story goes, that game day staple has humble origins, but its popularity gave rise to two empires: Buffalo Wild Wings and Wingstop. Hey, I'm David Brown, the host of the podcast Business Wars. Every season, we bring you the true stories behind the companies that shape our world: their rivalries, their reinventions, and their spectacular rises and falls. Buffalo Wild Wings built a sports bar empire. Wingstop went the opposite direction, focusing on getting wings out the door. For years, Buffalo Wild Wings was the undisputed king.

• 45:25Speaker 04

  But when Americans started ordering in instead of going out, Wingstop was ready to tear down its rival. Make sure to follow Business Wars wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Business Wars early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.