"The Steerage" - Eliza Putnam Heaton - The Times Union

A Sham Emigrant’s Voyage to New York

Byline: Eliza Putnam Heaton; 1888-10-20; The Times Union; 

Report: Sensational: the Hidden History of America's "Girl Stunt Reporters" Undercover Immigration Reporting

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"The words look up at me from a crumpled ticket which lies on my desk. On the reverse side I read in English, German, Swedish, French and Italian: "Keep this card to avoid detention at quarantine and on railroads in the United States." This small document was my passport from under the folds of the Union Jack tot he shelter of the Stars and Stripes. I have emigrated. Unlike most emigrants, I went from New York to Liverpool for the expressed purpose of emigrating. The desire was on me to cast in my lot with a shipload of human freight: to experience in my own person, the adventures, sad or merry, to test the treatment, good or bad, accorded those who leave home and country to lie down in the steerage, awake in Castle Garden and be whirled westward across the plains.

Description:Eliza Putnam Heaton goes undercover as an immigrant to expose their treatment on the passage across from Liverpool.

Rights: Eliza Putnam Heaton, The Times Union (newspapers.com paid subscription)

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