Early 19th c. immigration practices?

October 14, 2014 10:39 AM

Before Ellis Island there was Castle Garden. Before Castle Garden ...?

Before immigrants starting coming through Ellis Island, they were processed at Castle Garden. What about before Castle Garden? As in 1838?

The Steerage Act of 1819 appears to be the first attempt at dealing with immigration, by requiring passenger manifests to be filed with the Secretary of State. Was there any other immigration process in place in 1838? Or, would immigrants have been left to their own devices once they stepped off the ship?

posted by John Borrowman to Law & Government (4 answers total)

Somebody at University of Washington compiled this history of US immigration legislation. It doesn't exactly cover the process stuff you're talking about but it does show which laws would apply when, going back into the 1700s.
posted by Wretch729 at 11:15 AM on October 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

Or, would immigrants have been left to their own devices once they stepped off the ship?

Basically, yeah, on the federal level. Starting in 1819, ships captains had to turn over their manifests to the Secretary of State, but that was for statistical purposes. The first real immigration law wasn't until the 1882 Immigration Act.

There are naturalization laws going back to 1790, which dictate what all of these immigrants need to do to become US citizens. Since there weren't any restrictions on coming or going from the US, though, a lot of people didn't bother naturalizing.

You mention Castle Garden and Ellis Island, but both of those are specific to immigrants entering in New York City. Other ports of entry that immigrants may have entered at are Boston, Baltimore, New Orleans, Philadelphia, or Galveston. The same laws (or lack thereof) would have applied everywhere.

Here's the National Archives page on immigration records, which gives you an idea of what records were kept.
posted by donajo at 11:42 AM on October 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: You mention Castle Garden and Ellis Island, but both of those are specific to immigrants entering in New York City.

Yes. The immigrants in question arrived NYC, May 1838. For purposes of book, was wondering what hoops they might have had to have jumped through before heading west.
posted by John Borrowman at 1:34 PM on October 14, 2014

Then there were the Chinese who came to California to work on the railroads during the gold rush.

I suspect it was pretty much, you got off the boat and then tried to find work. I know that during the Civil War, immigrants were recruited right on the docks in New York.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 4:28 PM on October 14, 2014