I'm always surprised (sadly) how many people do not know history. If more people knew history we wouldn't repeat mistakes. In college I did a report about the construction of railroads. The history is eye-opening. Most people don't know that Chinese immigrants were hired to construct our rail system in the west. First, you need to know what the Transcontinental Railroad is: By connecting the existing eastern U.S. rail networks to the west coast, the Transcontinental Railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad") became the first continuous railroad line across the United States. It was constructed between 1863 and 1869. Now, here's the story from National Geographic.
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Building the Transcontinental Railroad, the moonshot of the 19th century - CBS
News)
Building the Transcontinental Railroad: How 20,000 Chinese Immigrants Made It Happen
At first railroad companies were reluctant to hire Chinese workers, but the immigrants soon proved to be vital.They toiled through back-breaking labor during both frigid winters and blazing summers. Hundreds died from explosions, landslides, accidents and disease. And even though they made major contributions to the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, these 15,000 to 20,000 Chinese immigrants have been largely ignored by history.
Hilton Obenzinger, associate director of the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University, says that Central Pacific Railroad director Charles Crocker recommended hiring Chinese workers after a job ad resulted in only a few hundred responses from white laborers.
Central Pacific Railroad was desperate, says Gordon Chang, Stanford professor of American history and author of the book, Ghosts of Gold Mountain. “White workers, whom the company wanted, did not sign on in numbers anything close to what was needed,” he says. “Crocker’s colleagues objected at first because of prejudice but then relented as they had few other options. The idea of hiring Chinese, it appears, might have been raised first by Crocker’s Chinese manservant.”
According to the Chinese Railroad Workers Project, Central Pacific started with a crew of 21 Chinese workers in January 1864. In 1865, that the majority of the railroad labor force were Chinese. More Chinese immigrants began arriving in California, and two years later, about 90 percent of the workers were Chinese.
“The Irish (who made up the majority of the Union Pacific workforce which was laying tracks westward from Omaha, Neb.) did not come out to California in large numbers until after the completion of the Transcontinental.”
Their job duties included everything from unskilled labor to blacksmithing, tunneling and carpentry, according to the Project, with most work done with hand tools.
Of course the large number of immigrants working for Central Pacific and their hard work didn’t mean they were well-treated or well-compensated for their efforts. According to the Project, Chinese workers hired in 1864 were paid $26 a month, working six days a week.
They eventually held an eight-day strike in June of 1867.
For the FULL ARTICLE: https://www.history.com/news/transcontinental-railroad-chinese-immigrants?cmpid=email-hist-inside-history-2023-0510-05102023&om_rid=&~campaign=hist-inside-history-2023-0510
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