Carriage of Passengers Act of 1855


The Carriage of Passengers Act of 1855 was an act passed by the United States federal government on March 3, 1855, replacing the previous Steerage Act of 1819 and a number of acts passed between 1847 and 1849 with new regulations on the conditions of sea transportation used by passenger ships landing in the United States. The law was passed by the 33rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Franklin Pierce.

Historical context

Steerage Act of 1819

On March 2, 1819, the United States government passed the first legislation regulating the conditions of sea transportation for migrants. The legislation is known as the Steerage Act of 1819 and also as the Manifest of Immigrants Act, the latter name because one of its provisions was a requirement for ships to submit a manifest of immigrants on board.

Disease outbreaks attributed to migrants and overcrowding of migrant ships

As industrialization and urbanization took hold in both the United States and Europe, new, contagious diseases such as cholera, typhus, and typhoid began to rise in prominence in both United States and Europe.
The 1829–51 cholera pandemic that originated in India and reached the United Kingdom in 1831 arrived in New York City in the United States in 1832, likely via ships carrying migrants across the Atlantic, leading to a cholera epidemic in that year. Subsequently, cholera spread to Philadelphia and Detroit.
New York City, a hub of industrialization and also a landing point for many migrants from Europe, saw further disease outbreaks: a typhoid epidemic in 1837 and a typhus epidemic in 1842. The latter epidemic killed the four-year-old son, Frank Robert, of Franklin Pierce, who would later be President of the United States when the Carriage of Passengers Act would pass.
Starting around 1845, Ireland experienced a Great Famine leading to a huge amount of emigration. The migrants, many of them on the verge of death, with no money and no food, were packed very densely into ships headed across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. The conditions on the ships were so bad that they came to be known as coffin ships.
The Irish emigration, and in particular the cramped and unhygienic conditions of transportation, were believed to be a major factor in causing the 1847 North American typhus epidemic. The epidemic primarily affected Canada but also spread somewhat in New York City.

Steps leading up to passage of the Act

In order to prevent the spread of diseases on board, a number of pieces of legislation were passed adding new regulations to the condition of travel in a piecemeal fashion, starting 1847. Some of the main Acts and amendments are listed below:
In 1853, Hamilton Fish, a Republican senator from New York, called for a select committee to "consider the causes and the extent of the sickness and mortality prevailing on board of emigrant ships" and to determine what further legislation might be necessary. With support from President Franklin Pierce, the 33rd United States Congress passed the Carriage of Passengers Act on March 3, 1855. The Act repealed and replaced the Steerage Act of 1819 as well as the five acts listed above, consolidating and expanding on the regulations in the various Acts.

Provisions

Section 1: Density limits

Section 1 of the law dealt with limits to the density of passengers on the ship, as well as penalties for failing to abide by the limits. Specifically, the limits were as follows:
Section 2 of the law dealt with the number of design of berths:
Section 3 of the law dealt with some miscellaneous design matters:
The collector of customs at the United States port where the ship arrives or from which the ship departs must appoint and direct one or more inspectors of customs to examine the ship. The inspector must submit a report in writing to the collector regarding the ship's compliance with the rules. If the report states compliance, this is treated as prima facie evidence of compliance.

Section 10: Supersedes Steamship Act of 1852

Due to the overlap in score with the Steamship Act of August 13, 1852, the Act was explicitly specified as superseding that earlier Act.

Section 11: Vessels bound to and from Pacific ports

For vessels bound to and from Pacific ports, all the sections of the Act apply except Section 6. However, a sufficient daily supply of water and enough well-cooked food must still be supplied by the owner and master of the vessel to all passengers, and the same penalties as in Section 6 apply for failure to meet these requirements.

Sections 12 and 13: Lists of passengers

The requirements in this section updated the requirements of Sections 4 and 5 of the Steerage Act of 1819, with significantly more reporting requirements. Upon arrival, the captain of the ship must submit, along with a manifest of the cargo or a report of the ship's arrival, a manifest of all passengers who boarded the ship at any foreign port, along with the following data for each passenger:
Refusal or neglect to comply with any of the reporting requirements incurs the same penalties as refusal or neglect to submit a manifest at all.
The collector of customs must submit quarterly reports to the Secretary of State with all the manifests submitted in that quarter.

Section 14: Payments for deaths on board

Section 16: Applicability to vessels carrying colored immigrants

Every vessel that shall or may be employed by the American Colonization Society or the Colonization Society of any state to transport from a United States port to a West African port is subject to the regulations of this Act.

Section 17: Collection of data by collector

The collector of customs at a port shall examine each ship or vessel, on its arrival at the port, and ascertain and report to the Secretary of State the following:
The Act would apply to all ships that depart thirty days after the Act is official.

Section 19: Repeal of Steerage Act and its modifications

The Steerage Act of 1819 and the five Acts related to the conditions of passenger vessels passed since 1847 become inactive on the date the current Act becomes active. However, prosecution and recovery of damages related to these Acts for violations when they were active can continue even after their repeal.
However, the Secretary of the Treasury may, at discretion, discontinue prosecutions based on these past Acts.

Subsequent changes and events

Court cases and interpretations

In 1856, the United States District Court for the District of California had to decide a case based on regulations in the Carriage of Passengers Act. In order to help the jury evaluate the case, the judge, Matthew Hall McAllister, issued guidance on the law.

Act of July 4, 1864

On July 4, 1864, under the 38th United States Congress and President Abraham Lincoln, an Act amending the Carriage of Passengers Act was passed. The Act was titled An Act further to regulate the Carriage of Passengers in Steamships and other Vessels. It primarily dealt with the applicability of provisions of the Carriage of Passengers Act to ships arriving in Mexico and Central America. It also specified that informers about violations of the Act were entitled to half the penalties.

Carriage of Passengers Act of 1882

On August 2, 1882, a further Carriage of Passengers Act was passed, updating the regulations in light of recent advanced in shipbuilding that made better conditions of travel more economically feasible. There continued to be pressure from American medical bodies, such as the American Medical Association, to strengthen the regulations on the conditions of travel.