How were Chinese workers treated while building the Transcontinental Railroad?

How were Chinese workers treated while building the Transcontinental Railroad? On the western portion, about 90% of the backbreaking work was done by Chinese migrants. About 10,000 to 15,000 Chinese workers came to the United States to build the Central Pacific Railroad. Chinese workers found some economic opportunity but also experienced hostility, racism, violence, and legal exclusion.

Were Chinese railroad workers paid less?

“Not only were they paid less than their white counterparts,” Chang says. “They also had to pay for their food, supplies and medicine, all of which the railroad company provided to white workers.” What little money the Chinese workers saved, they sent back to their families.

What were the bad things about the Transcontinental Railroad?

But there was also a dark side to the historic national project. The railroad was completed by the sweat and muscle of exploited labor, it wiped out populations of buffalo, which had been essential to Indigenous communities, and it extended over land that had been unlawfully seized from tribal nations.

How much were workers paid on the transcontinental railroad?

The railroad workers were paid, on average, a dollar a day. They lived in twenty railroad cars, including dormitories and an arsenal car containing a thousand loaded rifles. They worked hard and were usually able to lay from one to three miles of track per day depending upon the available materials.

How did the Transcontinental Railroad affect immigrants?

For immigrants to the United States, the Transcontinental Railroad presented an opportunity to seek their fortunes in the West. There, they found more opportunity than the port cities of the East Coast, where discrimination kept immigrants living in urban squalor.

How did Chinese workers respond to working conditions on the Transcontinental Railroad?

The Chinese workers were educated and organized; 3,000 laborers went on strike in 1867 to demand equal wages, as the white workers were paid double. “They were unsuccessful because they were out in the middle of nowhere,” said Liebhold. “The railroad stopped them from getting food. That's one way it failed.”

How were the Chinese discriminated against during the construction of the transcontinental railroad?

They made less than their white counterparts, and in 1867 participated in an (eventually unsuccessful) strike for equal pay. The Chinese laborers often did the most dangerous parts of the construction, including the dynamiting of mountain tunnels.