The Journey of Jacques Marquet

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The Journey of Jacques Marquet
Artifact
Letter
Contributions
Push Pull Factors
Hardships
Bibliography
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Pushes and Pulls

• Pushes
• Religious persecution
• Fear of war
• Famines and droughts
• Lack of money or poverty
• No jobs
• lack of food
• no freedom
• diseases
• overly crowded living conditions
• Pulls
• Tales of becoming rich
• Free education
• Three meals a day
• More and better jobs
• more unpopulated land
• the right to choose your leader
• no wars
• the freedom to have your own beliefs

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Hardships

• Not having enough food to last the trip
• Becoming seasick
• VERY uncomfortable beds
• The possibility of becoming very ill
• being very poor
• having to learn a new language
• not having enough money to buy suitable living
  quarters
• mistreated by rude people already living in
  America

www.bergen.org/.../ who_are_the_immigrants.html
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Artifact
I received this limoge box, a special French
glass, and silver ring from my grandparents on my
14th birthday in Paris. I brought it because it
reminds me of my old country, my late grandpa and
my living grandma. It was very easy to bring
because of its size.
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Contributions

• Frederic-Auguste, a 31 year old French sculptor ,
  thought up and designed the Statue of Liberty and
  decided to put it in New York Harbor
• In 1849 the Bourdon tube pressure gauge was
  created in France by Eugene Bourdon and is still
  one of the most widely used instruments for
  measuring the pressure of liquids and gasses of
  all time.
• Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman, who really
  wanted to read .Created Braille, dot patterns
  that stand for all the letters of the alphabet,
  punctuation marks, and other symbols.
• During the colonel era 1604-1760 French people
  made maps that contained a wealth of information
  about Indian settlements, trade routes, and
  military activities.
• French people contributed many different foods to
  American culture
• French people have designed many different styles
  in clothing wear .

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A Letter in a Bottle
September 8, 1941 Dear whoever finds this
letter, I am Jacques Marquet and I am from
France. I am 18 years old. My family includes my
father, my mother, my sister, and of course me.
My Dad earns a living by making coats and selling
them at a stand in the middle of town. My mom is
a maid who cleans houses. My sister is 10 and
wants to be an artist. I, however, want to be a
doctor. We live in a small house in Southern
Paris. The house is cold in the winter and hot
in the summer. We have no fireplace and it can
be very cold. Today is Yom Kippur, a very holy
Jewish holiday. Since we are Jewish, many people
are prejudice toward us. That is one of the
reasons we are going to America. Another reason
is that Nazis have already taken my grandfather
to one of their concentration camps and we fear
the worst. Plus people say that in America people
become rich in a month, you get to eat three
meals a day, and you can have a free education.
If I go there I could study up to be a doctor! We
will go in 2 days. I am going to really miss
seeing the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph. I
will also miss the rainy days where you can
listen to the rain drops hit the roof, but I will
survive.
Next
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Today is the big day. I have packed only my most
favorite possessions my book about being a
doctor, my Limogue box that holds my silver ring,
and my framed picture of my grandparents. I am
also bringing a basket with 7 turkey sandwiches,
which will probably have to last the whole trip.
I will also pack 5 bottles of water, 30 francs,
and a blanket. My mother, my father, my sister,
and my dad left the house at 100 AM so we would
not draw any attention. We had to ride a train
all the way to Nice, France where the ocean
liner, the Sobieski, waited for us. We arrived
there at 600 PM. We were all checked for
diseases and luckily we were all okay. We made
it just before the huge boat left.
Unfortunately, we had 3rd class tickets. I wished
we had 1st class tickets because the food and
accommodations were much better. I am still
grateful that we are on the Sobieski, ready to
start our new lives. The 10 day journey seemed
like a lifetime. We had scrunched up bunk beds
where we all slept. Every second I could hear
those waves slap against the boat. They were so
annoying that I felt like screaming! Some of the
days I wondered around and heard many people
speaking in different languages.
Next
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I even learned a few English words from a French
sailor on the boat who spent some time in
America. I felt many things on the voyage. I
hated the smell of the air, it was salty and
constant. On some rare moments, I could smell
the tastes of foods from other countries that
were unfamiliar to me. I was hungry the entire
time. We ate all our food and we were able to buy
a little extra food like soup and stringy beef.
We finally arrived on September 20th 1941. I
was so cold because I had brought shorts and a
collared shirt. I also had a French hat called a
beret. I could see the statue of Liberty. The
monument was so beautiful and made my heart warm.
Some men came on board and inspected us for more
diseases when the ship anchored. One of the men
came to me and looked me over. They did the same
with each member of my family. After they
finished, they left the boat. The boat then left
port and went to a place I had heard about from
the French sailor. The name was Ellis Island.
We left the ship and carried our belongings
straight into the registry room, which was called
the Great Hall.
Next
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I saw many wooden benches and was first looked at
by doctors who examined my skin, throat, hands,
and scalp. I was asked my name and I told them.
One of the doctors used a buttonhook to roll my
eyelids back. It was very scary having something
so sharp near my eye. Luckily, we had nothing
wrong with us and we went to a number of lines
for processing. We waited for a long time and
finally we came to a man at a desk. He could
speak French and he started shooting off
questions like a gun. The questions included
where I had come from, if I had relatives in
America, and after 25 other questions, we were
finished. When we were done, we went to a
counter where a man exchanged our money. We each
had to have 25 dollars. My dad had 97 dollars.
I could not believe that I was going to miss out
on America because of a small amount of money.
Then, all of a sudden I remembered my 30 francs I
had been saving. I handed it to my dad and I
breathed a sigh of reliefwe had enough money.
Then, we walked up to a man who gave my father a
card. Then, we came to a place called the
staircase of separation. We went to the left
where we went on a small boat to Manhattan.
Next
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That first step onto the ground was the best one
I had ever taken. We were greeted by many
different people and some of them were able to
speak French. One man was named Maurice and he
worked for the Salvation Army. He told us that
he could help us to obtain food, shelter, and
jobs for my parents. Most importantly, he could
help me attend school and learn English. We found
a small apartment in East Manhattan and I figured
that I would go to High School for I year to
learn English. Well, living in America is going
to be a whole new adventure. I better start
studying my homework for school. Sincerely, Jacque
s Marquet
uhlan.chez.tiscali.fr/ zimages/kaiserwg.jpg
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Bibliography
Alcraft, Rob. A Visit to France. Heinmann
Library, Chicago , Illinois,1999 Allen, David Y.
French Mapping of New York and New England
1604-1768. French Maps,7 , October, 2004 http// WWW.sun yb.edu/bibmap/French/frenchne.
Htm Bellis Mary Bourdon Tube Pressure Gauge
Inventors. 7 October,2004 About . Com /library/inventors/
blbourdon.htm. Bellis Mary Louis Braille the
History of Braille Inventors. 7 , 0ctober, 2004
http//inventors.about . com Library/
inventors/blb.raille.htm Bellis Mary Pencil and
eraser trivia. Inventors.7 October, 2004
inventors/blpenhtm conte. Jones,Linda. Last
Names,French Names in the 1860 US Census of
Aroostook Country , Maine .4,October, 2004.Upperstation. Com/1860/frenchnames.htm Kaye,
Joel. Personal Interview, 2, October,
2004 Levine, Ellen. If Your Name was Changed at
Ellis Island. New York Scholastic Inc. Reddy .M,
William. France. The World Book Encyclopedia.
1996 The Two Sisters, History Statue of Liberty
.7,October 2004. /parkinsfolst/history/liberty.html20th
century Culture. 6,October, 2004