Did black people help build the Transcontinental Railroad?

“Almost 160 years ago, our transcontinental railroad was built with the ingenuity and hard work of diverse laborers. In the West, it was the Chinese track gangs. In the Midwest, it was the civil war veterans, including African Americans, as well as Irish immigrants.



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African Americans were employed as train porters, freight handlers, switch tenders, and engine shop workers. Following the Civil War, George Pullman established the Pullman Sleeping Car Company.

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Many workers contributed to the construction of railroads. On the East Coast, Native Americans, recently freed black people, and white laborers worked on the railroads. On the West Coast, many of the railroad workers were Chinese immigrants.

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Chinese workers made up most of the workforce between roughly 700 miles of train tracks between Sacramento, California, and Promontory, Utah. During the 19th century, more than 2.5 million Chinese citizens left their country and were hired in 1864 after a labor shortage threatened the railroad's completion.

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However, two industries benefited the most from the Transcontinental Railroad. Those were cotton and cattle. Railroads made it possible for cotton farmers in the east to ship their products to the western frontier quickly.

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Teachers should understand that most of the people who worked to build the transcontinental railroad were immigrants from China and Ireland. These immigrants faced discrimination in the U.S., but their labor made this national achievement possible.

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In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act, which designated the 32nd parallel as the initial transcontinental route, and provided government bonds to fund the project and large grants of lands for rights-of-way.

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Railroad Worker demographics by race The most common ethnicity among railroad workers is White, which makes up 59.5% of all railroad workers. Comparatively, 14.3% of railroad workers are Hispanic or Latino and 14.3% of railroad workers are Black or African American.

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He has also estimated that over 10,000 slaves a year were working on the railroads in the South between 1857 and 1865. These figures seem entirely plausible and accurate.

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Transcontinental Railroad Facts
  • It was built to connect the United States' East and West Coasts. ...
  • Approximately 1,800 miles of track. ...
  • The transcontinental railroad cost roughly $100 million. ...
  • Workers came from a wide range of backgrounds and ethnicity. ...
  • President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act.


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Some of the first, longest and most ambitious railroads in the nation were built in the South beginning in the late 1820s. By 1860 the South's railroad network was one of the most extensive in the world, and nearly all of it had been constructed with slave labor.

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John Stevens is considered to be the father of American railroads. In 1826 Stevens demonstrated the feasibility of steam locomotion on a circular experimental track constructed on his estate in Hoboken, New Jersey, three years before George Stephenson perfected a practical steam locomotive in England.

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While much of the original transcontinental railroad tracks are still in use, the complete, intact line fell out of operation in 1904, when a shorter route bypassed Promontory Summit.

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To meet their manpower needs, both railroads employed immigrants to lay the track and blast the tunnels. The Central Pacific hired more than 13,000 Chinese laborers and Union Pacific employed 8,000 Irish, German, and Italian laborers.

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In less than one year, 80 percent of Central Pacific's workforce was made up of Chinese laborers, and by 1867, there were a total of 14,000 Chinese immigrants working on the railroad.

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What was not true about Chinese immigrants who worked on building the Transcontinental Railroad? They worked few hours each day.

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