ARLINGTON, Va. - s4story -- by Ed Lengel for David Bruce Smith's Grateful American Book Prize

Castle Garden, New York, Opens, August 1855

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, New York's Ellis Island was a usual port of entry for immigrants into the United States, but it was not the first. In 1807—Fort Clinton or Castle Clinton—built in honor of New York's governor DeWitt Clinton—had been constructed on a rocky peninsula just off Manhattan's lower to repel a possible British invasion, but, after its military purpose became obsolete, it was sold privately, renamed Castle Clinton, and converted into a public entertainment venue.

Then, on August 1, 1855, the State acquired the parcel to receive a burgeoning wave of immigrants from Europe, who were being dumped onto the city's piers.

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The newcomers flowed in during Ireland's Great Famine (1846-1852); Germany, and in the midst of the 1848 revolutions in Central Europe; thousands of impoverished Jewish people were also processed by stern-faced state inspectors who inquired about their health; robbed, dumped, and swindled them before they could start new lives. Even so, during the next three-and-a half-decades, Castle Garden primed and prepared approximately eight million refugees, who profoundly transformed the United States, before it was replaced by Ellis Island in the 1880s.

For more information about Castle Garden and its role as an immigration center, the Grateful American Book Prize recommends Barry Moreno's Castle Garden and Battery Park (2007).

History Matters is a feature courtesy of the Grateful American Book Prize. For more book recommendations and information about the annual award visit https://gratefulamericanbookprize.org/.