The Chinese And Their Part In The Transcontinental Railroad

4 Pages 997 Words

In 1850 there were only a few hundred Chinese in California. Most were merchants who were respected as honest upright citizens California people called them the “celestials” because they came from the “Celestial Kingdom.” By 1852 there were about 20,000 Chinese on the western coast, looking for gold during the Gold Rush. Their skills as miners caused jealousy and hatred. They were accused of stealing from the Americans. Chinamen were attacked by hoodlums on San Francisco streets for no other reasons than there race.
James Strobridge hated the thought of hiring “Orientals”; He thought they were “heathen weaklings and at the best they were fit for washing clothes and raising vegetables.” He said “I will not boss Chinese….. They are not fit for labor.”
The Chinese immigrants were eager for work and at least five thousand men were needed for blasting roadbeds around and through mountains. At the time the Central Pacific Railroad construction crew had less than 800 men, and many went on strike for more money. By the spring of 1865 the situation was so bad Croker convinced Strobridge to hire 50 Chinamen on a trial basis.
Thrown into freight cars in the Sacramento station and hauled to the end of the track, they were immediately put to work.
At first Strobridge gave them simple unskilled jobs such as filling and dumping carts. He believed they were to weak to swing heavy hammers. However the white men refused to work with the China men ; many white men quit. So Strobridge had to test the Chinese. Strobridge was told was told that “the coolies were better than any white mans crew.” According to one of the observers this was one of “the cruelest blow of all the egos of the whites.”
Strobridge asked Croker to find more Chinese. Within six months more than two thousand Chinese were hired.
The Chinese Protective Society which had been organized by San Francisco clergy men, met ships with armed guards to pr...