USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Chinese peasants from the Canton Province began arriving on California’s shores in 1850, pushed by poverty and overpopulation from their homeland-and pulled forward by rumors of the Gum Sham, the Mountain of Gold, that awaited them across the ocean.

Detailed explanation-2: -Less than two years later, almost 90 percent of the Central Pacific workforce was Chinese; the rest were of European-American descent, mostly Irish. At its highest point, between 10, 000 and 15, 000 Chinese were working on the Central Pacific, with perhaps as many as 20, 000 in total over time.

Detailed explanation-3: -One of the groups that literally took on the brunt of the work, were the Chinese laborers. Most of the Chinese workers, who numbered over 11, 000 by the end of the project, were employed by the Central Pacific Railroad building out of Sacramento, California. The use of Chinese labor started as an experiment.

Detailed explanation-4: -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. The work was tiresome, as the railroad was built entirely by manual laborers who used to shovel 20 pounds of rock over 400 times a day.

Detailed explanation-5: -When the Gold Rush ended, Chinese Americans were considered cheap labor. They easily found employment as farmhands, gardeners, domestics, laundry workers, and most famously, railroad workers. In the 1860s, it was the Chinese Americans who built the Transcontinental Railroad.