American Passage The History Of Ellis Island Analysis

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In his book “American Passage: The History of Ellis Island”, Vincent J. Cannato expressed the course that the late 1800s to 1900s immigrants went through. The main focus of Cannato’s book was the many changes in the immigration policy, and how it shaped the United States. Before Ellis Island opened, the restriction of immigrants was weak. Many Americans had their own beliefs on how immigration should be managed, however, restrictions towards immigration was not enforced until the early 1900s. When the immigration policy was finally imposed, the treatment of immigrants became harsh and unsympathetic. Vincent J. Cannato’s book “American Passage: The History of Ellis Island” explains the changes of procedures and laws, the attitudes of Americans, …show more content…

In 1893 two deadly disease outbreaks were found linked to immigrants in America. However, at this time Americans did not want to suspend immigration. “Public opinion, despite worries over immigration, was not willing to jettison America’s traditional vision of immigration” (Cannato 87). Even with the want to protect the “traditional vision of immigration” that America had, fear of immigrants still existed. Also propaganda in newspapers created a hateful insight on immigration for Americans that knew nothing about immigration. “For Americans who did not have close contact with immigrants, their vision of these newcomers often came from cartoons drawn by unsympathetic hands” (Cannato 179). By only witnessing immigration through hate filled cartoons, Americans started to loathe the idea of immigration. Fear of the unknown that immigrants brought only grew as the years went by. During the 1920s, the idea that the country was no longer one race bothered a great deal of Americans. “The Great War seemed to shift public attitudes toward immigrants, since ‘Americans were forced to the realization that their country, instead of being a homogenous whole, was a jumbled-up mass of undigested racial material” (Cannato 335). The idea of not being one set race, made many Americans leery of immigration. Even after the 1920s the alarm towards immigration has only grown. In addition to the attitudes of the American people during the late 1800s to 1900s, the experiences that immigrants went through was highlighted in Cannato’s book as

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