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Abraham Lincoln passed the Homestead Act, which granted immigrants 160 acres of free land in the west. However, this act would only be in action for the next 123 years. This act was an enormous contribution for westward expansion, as it offered many opportunites for poor immigrants to put what they knew how to do to good use.
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I was born into a well-to-do family in Venice, Italy. I lived in a large house with my mother, father, and younger brother.
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When I was 12, my family got into alot of debt. Most of the debt was made up of money owed to tax collectors. Some was also payments that had to be finished for certain investments.
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The first immigration office on Ellis Island was officially opened for immigrants waiting to enter the United States.
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At the age of 15, I traveled to Ellis Island on the steerage level of the ship. The smell was atrocious and we were all cramped in. Inside, the cots were so squished up, it was like one continuous sheet of cotton. When we finally arrived, the first thing my brother and I saw was the Statue of Liberty. It made me think of all the people like me that came everyday for America's opportunities. The Statue is the representative for all those people;a symbol of the melting pot that America is becoming
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By the time I was 17, my brother and I had been living in the city for a while. After living and working in poor factory conditions for 2 years, we moved to the west to claim our 160 acres of land.
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We finally got our 160 acres of land. My family decided to grow an apple orchard on it because we knew that apples grew well in the state of Washington and sell easily also.
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The Marabini apple orchard grew very well. Everyday, we grew and sold more apples. We finally had enough to start our own orchard. As time passed, we also started selling other kinds of orchard fruits, such as pears and cherries.
