20th Century Blog

Arriving at Angel Island in 1915 was an exciting, but worrisome experience for me. Like much of the other people arriving with me, I am a Chinese immigrant with the desire to leave the poverty of China and create a new successful life in the United States. On the journey here I made a friend with a man named, Hong Chang, we became very close. When we arrived in San Francisco, we were inspected. As we got closer to the line I realized that only some were granted entry and most were deported back to China. My heart felt like it had dropped to my stomach because thoughts and questions about whether or not I would be able to stay were racing through my head. It was finally my turn, I got inspected and I was granted entry. I was one of the lucky ones, unlike Hong who was sadly deported back to China. I was upset, but I knew I had to move on and continue my quest of hoping for a better life.
I was placed in a very crowded living quarter with many unfamiliar faces. Years went by and nothing got better. Just by looking around I got stressed, but I stayed strong. Every morning I would wake up to see the dead bodies of people who committed suicide and to be interrogated. Another couple years went by and I started thinking that if I end up dying in here I would want the people of the future to remember me and how strong I have been these years in this gruesome place. As a result, I started penciling and carving all my thoughts and what my hopes and dreams were coming here on the walls. I hope that if I die and another group of young Chinese men come here as I did that they stay strong and keep striving for all their wants and desires.

Hello. My name is Dushon Mandick. I came from Germany to Eliis Island. The boat ride was hell; there were so many people getting sick. Many of the immigrants who traveled with me died from sicknesses on the boat. My family and I left Germany because we were not able to worship our own religion. The boat ride took about a month to get to Ellis Island but when we arrived I have never felt better.

When we arrived we had to go through many procedures. They asked me many questions such as if I had a criminal record, if I had any allergies and also why I left Germany. They made me strip down to make sure I had no infections or that I was not smuggling anything into the United States. When everything was over I took the ferry into New York. I am starting a new life today and I have never felt happier

This is a picture of my family when we arrived at Ellis Island. They are going to inspect us real well to see if we have any diseases. One of my brothers has an eye disease so we think they will take him and send him back to Ireland. He will have to ride on the boat by himself. That will be scary for him. He probably will cry the whole way back.

I will get to stay with the rest of my family here in America. My father has told us that he hopes that once my brother get the eye disease cured, he will be able to join us. We hope that America is better than it was back in Ireland. I hope to live the American dream.

My mother was killed in the Russian massacre when I was just a little girl. My uncle has been saving money to send for all the orphan kids to live with him. I am indeed an orphan and being an orphan is tough. When my mother died it was really hard on my siblings and I because our father was killed about 3 years before. I gathered all my things together and helped my brothers and sisters pack their things. We got on the boat and headed to America were my uncle lives and where he will be taking care of me and brothers and sisters.

I get waken up by a worker who tells me we have arrived in America. As I am getting off the boat I see my uncle and I have never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life. America is a different place from where I used to live. We pulled in to his house and his house is a lot better than where I was living. He showed us our rooms and my room is really nice. I am happy to have a room that does not have seven kids living in it. Since I have been living with my uncle I have a lot of stress lifted off of me and now I can concentrate on more important things.

I am waiting to be brought in to the medical examiner for the seventh time this week. I have been here for six months, and they haven’t even cleared me of any diseases yet. I am concerned they are going to send me back to China. I haven’t seen my husband and two boys since we arrived; I am in a holding cell with just women. They other women have been here longer then I have, and their families have already been cleared. I am afraid I will end up like these women, and be separated from my family.
My family came here from China so that my husband could find work, without having to leave us every few weeks. We are going to stay with his friend that he worked with last year, before the fire burned down the factory. I am praying that I will be able to find work as a maid. I hope America will answer our hopes and prayers like the ones that left before us say.

My day was very hard. It was a long trip from China. It was very nasty on the boat. It had a lot of people. Also today has been a very slow day. I thought that I would be able to wander around the U.S., but I am still on Angel Island.

I got here and was like what is going on. I stood in line because they want to exam us before we enter. It is taking a long time for the exam. They wanted to make such we had no diseases. I want to tell them to hurry up and get it over with. We are getting treated pretty badly. I just want to get in the U.S. and get a new family

Its is now midnight. Today was a crazy day for my mom. She was getting check for things all day. My sisters were getting on my nerves. We are now in New York City and there is alot noise out here. My mom is going to look for somebody to takes in for tonight until we get our own house. My mom said since I’m the oldest I have get a job and her support the family.

I’m 11 years old, we all came from Italy, and my mom had problems there so we came to America here. My sisters are too young to take care of there self so I got to do it for right now. My mom is working at a sweatshop for 5cents an hour. I’m working as a delivery boy for 8cents an hour so I got a pretty good job So this my life and story in New York city.

I have been sitting all crammed up on a ship full of people. We finally made it to Angel Island. There are mainly Asians here. We all have to wait in a long line while the doctors exams us. The doctors are very scared that we might have some disease so they are going to examine all of us thoroughly.

It really does feel good to be in a free country, it was worth the long boat ride. I feel bad for the people who didn’t pass the examine nation. Were my family lived at before was not a great place. We have been treated really badly by the government. So as soon as I herd about the ship leaving to America the family and I jumped aboard.

It has been a long ride over here. My family and I have been on a ship from Russia where things have been very hard for us. When I was living there I had no job and no home. My family was close to going hungry. Now we are at the land of dreams. We are in the USA. Now we are standing here looking at the Statue of Liberty. I am thinking that my family can make it and we could have a normal life. We can now following the dream we have

My life there in Poland was all good till I came here to America. I did like it better over there and now I’m over here I’ve got nothing. I have no home or life to live for all my kids. Here in America I am not so good. I go day by day to get work and to live in a house.

I don’t know how I’m going to get it all but I need to try harder. I try everyday to get a job to get a house. Life is not what they promised. I don’t have a home like they said. Now I’m out here all alone and there is nobody to help me and I need it now.

Everyday there’s a problem with immigration. California is one of the areas that is really bad. My men and I wait here at this one spot and pull these people in all day.
Here at Angel Island we don’t let it slide. A lot of people think they can come in and out of this island. I think not. I do my best everyday to stop all this action.

Immigration is a horrible thing and Americans pay for it. Immigrants think they can come in here everyday and take our jobs for less pay. I care for the people who raise their families in America. I think to myself if these people lose their jobs they may lose their families. I’m going to do my best to keep stopping these immigrants from entering the Americas.

I’m sitting here holding my father’s hand, looking across a big sea of water at a city called New York. My mother and father had told my brother and I that this will be our home one day. I’m sure my family and I would love to live there, but this is reality and in this world now days, you can’t dream to big.

We traveled a lot of places but as we stopped at Ellis Island, we looked over the bridge and realized that the big city across from us is where we’d like to be. Complications arrive though; we have no money to survive. We’re barely making it through, but I have a loving mother and father as well as the best older brother to look out for me.