The industrial growth was fueled by waves of immigration primarily from Europe and the Orient. Thirty one million people arrived in America between 1860 and 1930. (The Story of America, p. 328.) Nine million immigrants came to the United States between 1900-1910. (TFC, Vol. 1, 1900-1910, p. 72.) Former African-American slaves, who wanted to escape “the feudal caste system of institutional southern racism: restrictive Jim Crow laws, separate public facilities and a dearth of economic opportunities” (USA Today, 2/2/15, p. 4A), also migrated north to the industrial cities in what has been called The Great Migration (See Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns).
For over sixty years (1892-1954), Ellis Island was the main port of entry for mostly European immigrants to the American Promised Land. Angel Island in San Francisco Bay was the western equivalent for immigrants from Asia. Roughly two-thirds of the people now living in the United States can trace their roots in this country to ancestors who landed at Ellis Island.
Songs were written to reflect those experiences. For example there is Peter Boyle’s GRAMMY®-nominated work “Ellis Island: The Dream of America”. Boyer’s work celebrates the historic American immigrant experience, by combining the real words of actual American immigrants–chosen from the Ellis Island Oral History Project and read by actors–with his original, sweeping orchestral score.” Although it lacks lyrics like the other music in this book, it is appropriate because it certainly presents as graphic a picture of Ellis Island as lyrics can. (http://youtu.be/tfDS1BQarmo)
Neil Sedaka’s “The Immigrant,” (1975) sung by him at http://youtu.be/sBy8t_O592k, reflects the hopes and dreams that motivated young foreigners to make the arduous journey to the promise of America.
Harbors open their arms to the young searching foreigner
Come to live in the light of the beacon of liberty
Plains and open skies billboards would advertise
Was it anything like that when you arrived
Dream boats carried the future to the heart of America
People were waiting in line for a place by the riverIt was a time when strangers were welcome here
Music would play they tell me the days were sweet and clear
It was a sweeter tune and there was so much room
That people could come from everywhereNow he arrives with his hopes and his heart set on miracles
Come to marry his fortune with a hand full of promises
To find they’ve closed the door they don’t want him anymore
There isn’t any more to go around
Turning away he remembers he once heard a legend
That spoke of a mystical magical land called AmericaThere was a time when strangers were welcome here
Music would play they tell me the days were sweet and clear
It was a sweeter tune and there was so much room
That people could come from everywhereThere was a time when strangers were welcome here
Music would play they tell me the days were sweet and clear
It was a sweeter tune and there was so much room
That people could come from everywhere.
Illustrative of the situation immigrants found upon disembarking at Ellis Island is “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears” (2012) written by Brendan Graham and sung by Emmet Cahill of Celtic Thunder. (http://youtu.be/uBO3hfq9CTQ) The song is about the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island. She was 15-year-old Annie Moore from County Cork, Ireland. On Jan. 1, 1892, she arrived in America with her two younger brothers to meet their parents, who had moved to New York City two years prior. The ocean voyage at that time would have taken about two weeks and the traveling conditions were very poor.
On the first day of January,
Eighteen Ninety-Two,
They opened Ellis Island and they let
the people through.
And the first to cross the threshold
of that Isle Of Hope And Tears,
was Annie Moore from Ireland
who was only fifteen years.Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,
Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fear,
But it’s not the Isle you left behind.
That Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain,
Isle you’ll never see again
But the Isle of Home is always on your mind.In a little bag she carried
All her past and history,
And her dreams for the future
In the Land of Liberty.
And courage is the passport
When your old world disappears
But there’s no future in the past
when you’re fifteen years.When they closed Down Ellis Island
in Nineteen Forty-Three,
Seventeen Million people
Had come there for sanctuary.
And in springtime when I came here
And I stepped onto its piers,
I thought of how it must have been
When you’re fifteen years.Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,
Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fear,
But it’s not the Isle you left behind.
That Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain,
Isle you’ll never see again
But the Isle of Home is always on your mind.
“Immigrant Eyes,” written by Guy Clark and Jim Murrah (1988) and sung with Emmylou Harris (http://youtu.be/AfG-Z_zACHc) is another poignant look at the Ellis Island experience.
Oh Ellis Island was swarming
Like a scene from a costume hall
Decked out in the colors in Europe
And on fire with the hope of it allThere stood my father’s own father, huddled
With the tired and hungry and scared
Turn of the century pilgrims
Bound by the dream that they shared.They were standing in lines just like cattle
Poked and prodded and shoved
Some were one desk away from sweet freedom
Some were torn from someone they loveThrough this sprawling Tower of Babel
Came a young man confused and alone
Determined and bound for America
And carryin’ everything that he ownedSometimes when I look in my grandfather’s Immigrant Eyes
I see that day reflected and I can’t hold my feelings inside
I see starting with nothing and working hard all of his life
So don’t take it for granted say grandfather’s Immigrant EyesNow he rocks and stares out the window
But his eyes are still just as clear
As the day he sailed through the harbor
And come ashore on the island of tearsMy grandfather’s days are numbered
But I won’ t let his memory die
‘Cause he gave me the gift of this country
And the look in his Immigrant Eyes
“The Ghost of Ellis Island” written by Jan P. Christiansen describes the many ethnic groups that disembarked at Ellis Island over the years and their trials and tribulations. The song can be found at https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-itm-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=itm&p=the+ghosts+of+ellis+island+song#id=2&vid=1b4a9128e6a4111ceeb78b77f6a5a710&action=click The reference in the song to the Mariel Bay Boatlift is to a massive exodus of Cuban refugees, who in 1980 were trying to escape the Castro regime in Cuba. They used any type of craft they could find, no matter how unsafe. Many had to be rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Oh my name is Juan and I came to this country
On the boatlift from Mariel Bay
As I walked around the streets of the city,
I heard some people say:
“Oh they all look funny and they don’t speak English,
They’re taking our jobs away,”
Then from out of the past I heard people who came
To an island in New York BayChorus : Ellis Island!
Come down the gangplank, go through the door,
Stand on the long, long line,
Do you have TB or a social disease?
Do your hands and your legs work fine?
Do you have some relative there on the shore
Who can vouch for your sanity?
And if you make it through the day
They will stamp your card and say:
“Welcome to the Land of the Free!”Oh my name is Pat and I come from Killarney,
Where I worked with both my hands,
Then the crops they failed and the agent came,
He threw me off of the land,
So I crossed the ocean with my pack on my back,
And I hope they will let me stay,
Now the Old World is gone,
I can see a new home from this island in New York Bay.Oh my name is Rivka and I come from Russia,
Where I never knew luxury,
Then the Cossacks came with their swords and their guns,
They killed all my family,
So I came here where people don’t live in fear,
And I’ll sweat in your dress shops all day,
Though I’m tattered and torn,
I see dreams being born on this island in New York Bay.Oh my name is Guido and I come from Palermo,
Where I laid the bricks all day,
But I had a dream that was bigger than Palermo,
And that’s why I sailed away,
Now I’ll build your subways and I’ll climb your buildings,
And I’ll save up all my pay,
So that next year my wife and my children
Can come to this island in New York Bay.We are the ghosts of old Ellis Island,
We have our tales to tell,
Some left a good life to come over here,
Some left a living hell,
But we crossed the sea and we built this land,
As you will in your very own way,
And to you who have come, we all say,
“Welcome home!” from this island in New York Bay
“America,” was written and sung by Neil Diamond (1980) and from the soundtrack of Diamond’s remake of the 1927 movie ”The Jazz Singer.” (http://youtu.be/9ttDUGM-1mU) It was written to reflect the experience of Diamond’s ancestors who immigrated to the United States from Poland and Russia around the turn of the century.
Far,
We’ve been traveling far
Without a home
But not without a starFree,
Only want to be free
We huddle close
Hang on to a dreamOn the boats and on the planes
They’re coming to America
Never looking back again,
They’re coming to AmericaHome
Don’t it seem so far away
Oh, we’re traveling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the stormHome
To a new and a shiny place
Make our bed and we’ll say our grace
Freedom’s light burning warm
Freedom’s light burning warmEverywhere around the world
They’re coming to America
Ev’ry time that flag’s unfurled
They’re coming to AmericaGot a dream to take them there
They’re coming to America
Got a dream they’ve come to share
They’re coming to AmericaThey’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
They’re coming to America
Today, Today,
Today, Today, TodayMy country ’tis of thee (today)
Sweet land of liberty (today)
Of thee I sing (today)
Of thee I sing
Today, Today, Today
Today, today, today