What ethnicity was often paid the least for railroad labor in the 1800s in America?
“Chinese received 30-50 percent lower wages than whites for the same job and they had to pay for their own food stuffs,” Chang says. “They also had the most difficult and dangerous work, including tunneling and the use of explosives.
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The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. Building was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company-issued mortgage bonds.
Most of them were Chinese workers who were paid less for their labor than their European counterparts. Chinese migrants worked in the Sierra foothills for the Central Pacific Railroad. For years, railroad workers were largely overlooked in memorial events marking the railroad's completion.
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.
Tribes increasingly came into conflict with the railroad as they attempted to defend their diminishing resources. Additionally, the railroad brought white homesteaders who farmed the newly tamed land that had been the bison's domain.
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. New Jersey issued the first railroad charter in 1815.
The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. Building was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company-issued mortgage bonds.
“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.
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.
Along the way, these men helped give birth to the African American professional classes. The transcontinental railroad line offered them new opportunities for employment, broader knowledge about the U.S. for their personal betterment and that of their community.
Chinese workers were treated unjustly and paid lower because of their race. Chinese workers were paid approximately $24 to $31 a month, while the Irish workers were pad $35 a month. In addition, the Chinese worked longer hours and paid for their lodging, food and tools while Irish and white workers were provided for.
The Central Pacific Railroad, which was tasked with constructing the western half of the Transcontinental Railroad, began hiring Chinese workers in 1864 after facing a labor shortage that jeopardized the railroad's completion.
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.
Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific, former California governor and founder of Stanford University, told Congress in 1865, that the majority of the railroad labor force were Chinese.