The impact of the construction of the transcontinental railroad cannot be underestimated. Built just after the end of the Civil War and only eight years after the U.S. acquired California and the Southwest, it was essential in order to spread commerce and unite the country. The engineers, financiers and surveyors receive the attention in most history books, but here I want to focus on the lives and efforts of the Chinese laborers themselves – all 12,000 of them.
How the Workforce Amassed
Throughout the mid-1800s, the Chinese were emigrating by the thousands despite the dynasty’s ban on it, punishable by death. The Opium Wars and famine due to natural disasters drove men out; they were desperate to earn money as contract laborers to send back to their families. When the Gold Rush hit in 1948, California’s Chinese population transformed from merchants called Celestials to chiefly “coolies,” the Hindi word for unskilled labor. Mining was far from easy, however. The phrase “not a Chinamen’s chance” sprouted when whites drove Chinese immigrants from the mines, often with violence.
Meanwhile, the idea for the transcontinental railroad was materializing. The line connecting Omaha to the West Coast was to be tackled by two companies; the Union Pacific would build from Omaha westward, the Central Pacific from Sacramento eastward. They were to meet in the middle. The men in charge of the Central Pacific (CP) were having difficulty finding cheap, reliable labor, and eventually tried tapping into the struggling Chinese workforce. By the end of 1865, “One-eye Bossy Man” James Strobridge found his crew to be comprised of three-quarters Chinese immigrants.
- Address Ip Track
- Velocity Deep V Track
- Grass Track Cars
- 1912 Olympics Track Star
/, h — search box Enter, l, o — go Ctrl+Enter — bg ', v — new tab d — domain search t — top!, 1 — !bang dropdown esc — out of bangs
- Kill Bill Soundtrack Mp3 Download