Chinese Immigrants lived in really poor conditions. Small rooms were packed full of 20 to 30 immigrants. Rats and mice were everywhere, and catching diseases were often and deadly. Since there were no good vaccinations, many died from diseases caught from their workers. Sometimes the dirt would be inches high. Living in these conditions would be very harsh, yet still more and more immigrants from China came to mine and work on the railroad.
The Chinese played a very important, yet dangerous job building the railroads. They would be lowered in small buckets down cliff faces to stick explosives in the side of the cliff, then be brought back up. Many people died from either galling off ledges or being blown up, and it was sick and sad to watch your friend being blown up. The Chinese were willing to do this because it was basically the only thing that they could do.
Discrimination against them was high, so they wanted to do something that they would not be made fun of doing. They were willing to work for low pay, since even as low as their salary would be, it would still be more than they got paid in China, because of overcrowding and the Civil War. I think that Chinese railroad workers were definitely exploited by the owners. With very low wages, and poor working conditions, I don’t see why the Chinese put up with that. The owners didn’t really care for them like they did for white people. Also, the owners convinced the Chinese that work would be safe, saying that nobody would get hurt.
The Essay on Story Of A Chinese Immigrant
After 12 hours of hard labor work, Wong is exhausted and was fast asleep right after he finish every other mine workers laundry. Wong is a Chinese immigrant from China. Back in China he was a farmer peasant, who works 13 hours a day to earn some food for his family. But 13 hours of work was not enough, the crops that he grew is only enough to pay the debt for the land lords, he did not have any ...
This made them feel better about dangerous jobs, but after many deaths, the immigrants found out that it was not safe at all.’ Whereas, … California and pacific coast having proved that… The Chinese and their competition with free white labor is one of the greatest evils… Therefore be it Resolved, that we rid this monstrous evil by urging the United States congress the necessity of… prohibiting the immigration of Chinese… .’ This was text from a sign advertising the Chinese Exclusion Act.
People in the West were fed up with Chinese people taking their jobs. White people did not want to compete with Chinese in the labor industry, so they tried to get this law passed. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 and banned Chinese people from immigrating to the United States for 10 years. It was extended and lasted for 60 years until the next immigrant came to the United States.
