1849-1881
Chinese immigrants sailing on a ship to new opportunities.
1849
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Once the news of gold in California traveled to China in 1849, an abundance of Chinese traveled California to find riches for their families or to start over. In the 1860s, China was experiencing a civil war, so most immigrants fled to America to avoid the destruction. When they reached California, they tried to mine and pan for gold, but just like everyone else, most of them found nothing or little dusts of gold. When everyone gave up on looking for gold, some immigrants still needed money to pay off their debt of getting to America and/or a ticket back to China. They took up common jobs such as cooks or carpenters, but a lot of them joined the building of the transcontinental railroad, or better known as the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Discrimination against the Chinese was bad. They were constantly fighting with other immigrants and Americans for jobs and Americans were trying to convince them to leave their culture and fit in with everyone else. This caused some immigrants to want to leave California and make money elsewhere. In 1874, the Southern Pacific Railroad offered the immigrants a way out of California. Since most of the Chinese couldn’t even afford their ticket to America, they took up the offer of free labor to pay off their debt. The railroad was in a race with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to see which railroad could reach El Paso first and with the help of the Chinese immigrants, the Southern Pacific Railroad won. On May 19, 1881, the Southern Pacific Railroad made it to El Paso, winning the race. This railroad helped El Paso's population increase enormously. Now free of debt or almost free of it, about 300 immigrants decided to stay in El Paso to make money for their families back in China or start their new life in America. |