If you were poor and going to Ellis Island, then you were called a steerage passenger and had to sleep, eat, and play on deck. You would also have to go on Ellis Island to be checked for illnesses. But if you were rich and could rent a room on the boat you would probly get checked for illness on the boat.
Up to 700 people worked on Ellis Island. The Statue of Liberty stands for freedom and the immigrants that came on the boats saw that America was the land of freedom. 100 million immigrant families came to Ellis Island. The time when most immigrants came to the United States was from the 1890 to the 1920.
The busiest day was when 12 ships came to Ellis Island filled with people from all over the world. This was on April 9, 1898 when 12,668 came that day. The average amount of people who came to Ellis Island was 5,000 per day. During the busy days the doctors that checked the immigrants did not have enough time to check all the immigrants well they only did a two minute check up which wasn't very good because they let a lot of people go to the United States that were sick and they got a lot of other people sick.
Ellis Island had certain rules like if you were 12 and were sick then you would go back to were you came from, but if there was a grownup that was sick in your family then they would go with you. If you were 11 and younger then the doctors would try to would a parent to go with you.
When you got to Ellis Island some people would ask you questions like: Who are you? What's your name? How much money do you have? Why did you come to the United States? How big is your family? Do you own a business where is it? Were are you going? Do you have more then one wife or husband? How is your health?
If people suspected something was wrong with you then you would be kept for more questioning. Only 1 out of 10 immigrants is kept for more questioning. Only about 2 out of 100 were sent back to were they came from. Also there was three stairways, the middle row led to a boat for Manhatten, the right row led to a boat forNew Jersey, but no one wanted to go down the left row because it led to more tests and you might get separated from your family.
Now Ellis Island is a museum. People who had to go through Ellis Island when they were kids donated toys, passports, and clothes to the museum. Ellis Island was abandoned in 1954. In 1955 Ellis Island was declared a national monument. When it reopened in September 9, 1965, there was stuff left by people like: furniture, cloths, and dishes and things like that. There was also graffiti in all kinds of languages scattered on the walls. People also left instruments behind like trumpets, flutes, and violins. If you go to Ellis Island some of the passports, clothes, and instruments will be on display in the museum. The time when most immigrants came to the United States was from the 1890 to the 1920.
I bet Ellis Island was a scary place then but I would like to visit it now.
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