Ellis Island | Yearning to Breathe Free

American History Tellers

This episode explores the turbulent transition of American immigration from unregulated state-level processing to a centralized federal system at

Key takeaways

• Isaiah Reinders led a criminal network of 'immigrant runners' who extorted newcomers in New York City.
• The establishment of Castle Garden in 1855 provided the first official, regulated space for immigrant processing.

Main topics

• History of Ellis Island
• Immigration exploitation and fraud

Notable quotes

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Conclusion

The episode provides a profound look at how systemic corruption and po

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) 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. Speaker 5 (0:17) 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. He bows his head and doffs his cap, a grin spreading across his face. Speaker 4 (0:49) Well, good morning, and welcome to New York City. Speaker 5 (0:52) 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. Speaker 4 (1:01) Are you an Irishman? Born and raised? Where do you folks come Speaker 5 (1:04) 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. Speaker 4 (1:22) Oh, no, you don't need to do that. Don't worry about it. I'm a baggage handler. Speaker 5 (1:27) He starts walking off with your trunk. Your wife grabs your arm in concern, and you dash off after the man. Speaker 4 (1:33) Wait a minute. I appreciate the help, but I can handle the trunk just fine. Speaker 5 (1:37) 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. Speaker 4 (1:47) What? $15? I don't have that kind of money. Speaker 5 (1:49) 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 Speaker 4 (1:57) a minute. I did not agree to that. Speaker 4 (2:01) Hey, come back here. The Speaker 5 (2:03) man ignores your protests and disappears into the crowd. You turn around to face your wife. Speaker 4 (2:10) Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll sort this out. Everything's going to be just fine. Speaker 5 (2:15) 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, the dream that brought you here feels impossibly out of reach. Speaker 4 (2:37) Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Business Wars from Audible Originals. In our new season, FanDuel and DraftKings turned a legal loophole into a $167 billion industry. Now they're facing off against new competitors, angry regulators, and a growing backlash from the fans and athletes caught in the crossfire. Listen to Business Wars on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts. James Arthur Ray was a Speaker 3 (2:59) charismatic self-help guru who promised his followers a path to wealth and enlightenment by becoming the best versions of themselves. But not all who followed him finished their journey. For the best Bingeable series, listen to the Audible True Crime Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. From Speaker 5 (3:24) Audible Originals, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story. Speaker 5 (3:45) 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. 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 wharves 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. The 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 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 U.S. 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. 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 1 in our three-part series on Ellis Island, yearning to breathe free. Speaker 5 (6:00) 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, conmen, 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 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 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. 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, 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 torch-lit 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 Reinders' efforts failed to shut down Castle Garden, and for the first time, immigrants could enter the country without fear of fraud or exploitation. One English immigrant praised Castle Garden as a great national refuge for the immigrant from all lands. And over the next 35 years, 8 million people entered the United States through its doors. But in the 1880s, immigration skyrocketed once again, with 5 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. 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 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