Did you know that Galveston, Texas used to be the "Ellis Island" of the South? Immigrants from all over the world would come through Galveston and either move into central Texas via the railroads (hence the large German and Czech populations of Texas Hill country and Oklahoma) or they'd take the Mississippi River North towards Illinois and Iowa or branch off into Tennessee.
Galveston used to be a bustling, metropolitan and diverse city with languages from all over the world being spoken here. When the East Coast talked of limiting immigration, especially to Jews fleeing Russian pogroms, New York financier and philanthropist Jacob Schiff and Galveston's B'nai Israel's Rabbi Henry Cohen spearheaded the Galveston Plan to reroute Jewish immigrants from the East Coast to Texas.
There was a substantial fear that the poverty, overcrowding and cultural differences in Jewish immigrant neighborhoods would increase anti-Semitic frustrations on the East Coast, which would then lead to immigration restrictions on Jews. While some Jews fleeing pogroms fled to Palestine, tens of thousands of them came to Galveston to settle in the South and Midwest.
Not only was Galveston a place for freedom for immigrants fleeing persecution abroad, Galveston was an important stop on runaway slaves' path to Mexico or even Northern states that had outlawed slavery.
I didn't know any of this before visiting this museum. The museum at this historic seaport was incredibly informative and so well done.
Our ticket came with entry to the museum and access to the tall ship Elissa and we paid for an add-on of the Galveston harbor tour in a boat. It was an excellent tour, the ship was actively being trained on and restored while we were there and the museum was fantastic. Highly recommended!
Visited November 2025
