My Grandfather: A Saga of a Ship Jumper, an Alien and an American Immigrant

Part 3

Illegal Alien: The Underground Railroad 

      I suspected Abdul Goni has jumped ship serval times, utilizing the 1920 and 1930 Census, I was able to locate him in upstate New York State and in New York City. His desertion was still a major issue, it was essential to keep moving and not to be taken into custody by immigration. One method he and others may have use to reduce capture some would change their names or alter the spelling slightly and change out of their seamen clothes to civilian garb of the era: wearing suits, tie, and hats. Along the docks recruitment for jobs in factories and services, outside of New York City would have aided grandfather to disappear and evade the immigrant officials.

       South Asian seamen - "Lascars" were vital to Britain's Merchant shipping for centuries. Wellington Trust & Maritime Foundation. 2022.

     With the connections of the Bengali community, he discovered work in 1930 in factory as a laborer in Lackawanna, Erie County. This factory work would provide higher pay and away from the docks. Lodgings with other seamen in a boarding house nearby, it was always an understanding seamen Bengali would combine their resources, money, food, housing, and clothing. To help everyone to stand on its own, to save, to provide for himself and to send money back home. In grandfather's case, I always heard stories of his charity with many friends, family, and a good provider of his own family. It is heartwarming to know he may have lacked tools but was full of heart.

        

1920 Census Lackawanna, Erie, New York. Abdul age 23 years old. Boarding at 119 Ridge Road other seaman. Working as a fireman at a steel plant.

1920 Census Lackawanna, Erie, New York. Abdul age 23 years old. Boarding at 119 Ridge Road other seaman. Working as a fireman at a steel plant. 

       I believe that grandfather may have witnessed and may have been an actor as a strikebreaker Lackawanna Railroad or in the Bethlehem Steel's clash with the pro-union white workers in the summer of 1922 marked a near conflict between the white workers, Hindus, and African American workers. 

• Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Lackawanna Plant, Route 5 on Lake Erie, Buffalo, Erie County, NY

    In Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian American, Vivek Bald’s states, “recruit members of the Indian and Chinese crews of ships passing in and out of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. 

Grandfather Abdul Goni name is spelled differently - Abdulkanie: line 29.
 Boarding at 413 Mellody Avenue with other East Indians. Working as a fireman at steel mill. 1930 Census, Lackawanna, Erie, New York.

In the years immediately following the war, as U.S. labor unions mounted a series of regional and nationwide strikes, factory owners continued this practice, hiring Indian and Chinese seamen off the docks and using them alongside African American workers as strikebreakers.”

Railroad managers bring in strikebreakers and unions leaders attempts to cripple rail service. Bethlehem Steel access to rail lines were vital in moving their supplies throughout the country.   

Bengali were often referred as one group, Hindus.

Grandfather certainly survive such event, desperate keep working. Perhaps his understanding of the English language was still being tested, the culture, adjusting the weather conditions, and the fear of being arrested and perhaps deportation was every present with him. If he deported, he would resume his life on a merchant marine ship and again in the trajectory to the United States for another offer of betterment. Where he went on to marry my grandmother and have my father. Abdul Goni clearly demonstrated his strength, resilience, ingenuity, and enthusiasm.

Citation:

Bald, V. (2013). Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America. Harvard University Press.

Historic American Engineering Record, C., Lackawanna Iron And Steel Company, Lackawanna Steel Company & Bethlehem Steel Company. (1968) Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Lackawanna Plant, Route 5 on Lake Erie, Buffalo, Erie County, NY. Erie County New York Buffalo, 1968. Benz, S., O'Connell, K. & Christianson, J., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ny1584/. 

The New York Times. (July 9, 1922). Hindu Strike Breakers. Newspapers.com. Retrieved March 24, 2024, from newspapers

Maritime Foundation

The Wellington Trust

United States Census, 1920. Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 16 March 2024. Citing NARA microfilm publication T625. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

United States Census, 1930. Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 24 October 2022. Citing NARA microfilm publication T626. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002.