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The Chinese Underground Railroad was an imaginary route through the borderland between the United States and Mexico, [1] especially around El Paso, Texas. [2] Because of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese immigrants, with the help of Chinese laborers living in Mexico and smugglers, would illegally enter the United States in order to bypass the act. [3]
[1]: 99–100 Many of the Chinese immigrants who had come to the U.S. to work on the First transcontinental railroad were left looking for other employment after its completion in 1869; in San Francisco, Chinese workers were often hired at cheaper rates than European workers, and the Chinese immigrants were often convenient scapegoats for ...
The Chinese came to California in large numbers during the California gold rush, with 40,400 being recorded as arriving from 1851 to 1860, and again in the 1860s, when the Central Pacific Railroad recruited large labor gangs, many on five-year contracts, to build its portion of the first transcontinental railroad.
In February 1866, R.S. Chilton, the commissioner of U.S. immigration argued in his report to Congress that under the 1862 act prohibiting coolie trade, importation of Chinese labor to the South should be prohibited and southerners should instead work out contracts with freed Blacks. However, because the commissioner associated Chinese ...
"To Protect Free White Labor against competition with emigrant Chinese Labor and to Discourage the Immigration of Chinese into the State of California" was another such law (aka the Anti-Coolie Act, 1862), and it imposed a $2.50 tax per month on all Chinese residing in the state, except Chinese operating businesses, licensed to work in mines ...
The gold rush ended and the Chinese laborers sought work. While enduring a rugged terrain and challenging winter conditions, over 50,000 Chinese laborers built the railroad and over 1,000 died before it was finished in 1869. [7] [24] After railroad work dried up, the Chinese dispersed throughout the nation, taking on various jobs with low pay.
On February 19, 1862, the 37th United States Congress passed An Act to Prohibit the "Coolie Trade" by American Citizens in American Vessels. [1] The act, which would be called the Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 in short, was passed by the California State Legislature in an attempt to appease rising anger among white laborers about salary competition created by the influx of Chinese immigrants at the ...
The workers in the Chinese project were literate and well organized, but left no written records. [3] Despite the lack of written account from the Chinese workers, it is apparent from reports in the press and from the railroad bosses that the Chinese workers were hard-working, peaceful, and that the strike was carried out with no violence. [4]