What happened to the Chinese workers after the railroad was completed?
After completing the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, Chinese laborers fanned out across the United States to work on at least 71 other rail lines, according to Fishkin.
People Also Ask
Initially, Chinese employees received wages of $27 and then $30 a month, minus the cost of food and board. In contrast, Irishmen were paid $35 per month, with board provided. Workers lived in canvas camps alongside the grade.
Economic tensions quickly became prevalent, as many Chinese workers were willing to work for lower wages than their white counterparts. There were also cultural tensions as Chinatowns emerged in cities throughout the West Coast.
The completion of the transcontinental railroad led to heightened racial tensions in California, as white workers from the East Coast and Europe could more easily travel westward where immigrant laborers were prevalent, says Princeton University Assistant Professor of History Beth Lew-Williams, author of The Chinese ...
“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. There is also evidence they faced physical abuse at times from some supervisors.
They had to face dangerous work conditions – accidental explosions, snow and rock avalanches, which killed hundreds of workers, not to mention frigid weather.
The Chinese workers were educated and organized; 3,000 laborers went on strike in 1867 to demand equal wages, as the white workers were paid double. “They were unsuccessful because they were out in the middle of nowhere,” said Liebhold. “The railroad stopped them from getting food. That's one way it failed.”
The railroad workers were paid, on average, a dollar a day. They lived in twenty railroad cars, including dormitories and an arsenal car containing a thousand loaded rifles. They worked hard and were usually able to lay from one to three miles of track per day depending upon the available materials.
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.
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.
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.
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 ...
II Railroads in the Market and Social SpaceDespite the interruptions of the civil war and the slow completion of surveyed lines, railroads became part of the economic and social lives of people in Republican China, offering faster, more convenient, and safer transportation of goods and passengers.
Answer and Explanation:The entire United States benefited financially from the joining of two railroads to form one transcontinental railroad. However, two industries benefited the most from the Transcontinental Railroad. Those were cotton and cattle.