What happened to the Chinese that built the railroads?
What happened to the Chinese that built the railroads? 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. Many came as single men; others left families behind.
What did Chinese railroad workers eat?
They were paid less than other workers and expected to purchase their own food. However, this disadvantage turned out to carry some advantages for the Chinese workers. Records indicate they ate a diet rich in vegetables, seafood, rice, and tea.
Why were Chinese workers chosen to build the railroad?
He told President Andrew Johnson that the Chinese were indispensable to building the railroad: They were “quiet, peaceable, patient, industrious and economical.” In a stockholder report, Stanford described construction as a “herculean task” and said it had been accomplished thanks to the Chinese, who made up 90% of the ...
What were the living conditions like for the Chinese railroad workers?
From 1863 and 1869, roughly 15,000 Chinese workers helped build the transcontinental railroad. They were paid less than American workers and lived in tents, while white workers were given accommodation in train cars.
Who were the famous Chinese railway workers?
This photo shows three Chinese Railroad workers—Ging Cui, Wong Fook, and Lee Shao—at the Transcontinental Railroad's 50th Anniversary in 1919. These men were three of eight Chinese workers who put the last rail of the railroad in place!
What did railroad workers eat?
Working on the Railroad Teamsters and graders received the least, while the iron men got the healthiest sum of anybody save their foremen. Like their Irish counterparts on the Central Pacific, the Union Pacific men had a staple diet of beef, bread, and black coffee.
What percentage of railroad workers were Chinese?
Altogether, the Central Pacific Railroad hired an estimated 12,000 Chinese workers, some as young as 12. The Chinese workers, at that time the largest industrial workforce in American history, made up 90 percent of the Central Pacific's total labor force.
How much of the railroads were built by Chinese?
The Chinese numbered 10,000 to 15,000 during high points of construction of the CPRR; and they perhaps amounted up to 20,000 in total between 1865 and 1869, composing as much as 90 percent of the workforce for much of the construction.
How much did Chinese immigrants get paid a day for building railroads?
The Central Pacific's Chinese immigrant workers received just $26-$35 a month for a 12-hour day, 6-day work week and had to provide their own food and tents.
Why were the Chinese treated so poorly during the building of the railroads?
Looking back, historians say, the Chinese, who began arriving in the United States in significant numbers during the California Gold Rush of 1848-1855, were deemed too weak for the dangerous, strenuous job of building the railroad east from California.
Who built most of the railroads in the US?
While Chinese workers dominated the railroad workforce in the West, most eastern and southern railroad companies relied on Black Americans to do the back-breaking construction work.
Which railroads were built by slaves?
North America's four major rail networks — Norfolk Southern, CSX, Union Pacific and Canadian National — all own lines that were built and operated with slave labor.