Baltimore Immigration History

Baltimore Immigration History. . , Before 1821 immigrants from the German States, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, France, Haiti, as well as African slave arrived in Baltimore in relatively small numbers, fewer than 1,000 per year on average., From 1821 to 1914, close to a total of 1.5 million immigrants chose Baltimore as their port of entry to the United States, coming from the English ports of Southampton and Liverpool, and from the German ports of Bremerhaven and Hamburg, with stops in Le Havre, France., From 1821 to 1880, 368,000 European immigrants arrived here. Germans made up the largest group (79% of immigrants before the Civil War were German), followed by Irish and English., Between 1880 and 1914, a much larger group, 1.1 million immigrants arrived here. Germans and Irish continued to immigrate, but were joined by other nationalities of Central and Eastern Europe: Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, and Ukrainians. Jewish immigration reflects this pattern as well; German Jews immigrated before 1880, while Polish and Russian Jews predominated afterwards. Italians and Greeks, also playing an important role in Baltimore's history, came to Baltimore from other ports of entry, as Baltimore had no steamship connections with Mediterranean ports., Until about 1850, most immigrants first set foot on American soil at Fells Point; afer a few years of transition, Locust Point became the main port of entry. In 1867, the B&O Railroad Company, under the leadership of John Work Garrett, and the North German Lloyd Steamship Company, represented by Albert Schumacher, signed a contract to develop a facility at this location that enabled immigrants to land here and board nearby trains to take them to destinations further West. Of the more than 1 million immigrants who landed at this site, some made Baltimore their home, while others traveled to settle on the farms and in the towns and cities of the Mid-West., [Captions:] , The S. S. Baltimore arrived on March 23, 1868, the first ship to land at this immigration site in Locust Point., Immigrants arrive at Locust Point in 1904