Journal Entry of a Subordinate Group Member
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Journal Entry of a Subordinate Group Member
My name is Chuin Haow. I am from the Sichuan province of China. In 1865, I was hired by the Central Pacific Railroad Company to work on the expansion of the Central Pacific Railroad across the High Sierras into the interior plains of the United States. There were about 4000 Chinese working on this project. I was 27 years old. My wife, mother, mother- and father-in-law, and revered grandfather lived in San Francisco, California. They were not able to work on the railroad, as the elders were too old, and of course, my wife, being a woman, was not eligible to be hired. I sent my pay to them and saved as much as possible, so that we would be able to live comfortably when I returned.
I was hired at 28 dollars each month for my work and worked from sunrise to sunset, six days a week. My job was to lay railroad ties and this involved making a bed in which to lay the ties, through rock. Making those beds was physically exhausting work. I lived in a small shack. The railroad company was knowledgeable about our eating habits, and made certain that we had foods that were similar to our foods in China. This was to make sure we did fall ill while we did the work. The foods we ate included seaweed, rice, dried oysters, dried fruit, dried mushrooms, cooked meat, fish, salted cabbage, pork, and poultry. We drank lukewarm tea. I was never ill, although I grew tired of eating the same things. I longed for my wifes cooking.
This portion of the railroad took four long years of effort, and I never received a chance on going home to see my family during that time. We experienced very harsh winters. Snow covered our shacks and we had to tunnel in and out of the camp to lay ties. It was hard work, and many of my fellow workers died. It was not uncommon for as many as 10 workers to die in a day. When the workers died, it meant that the remaining workers had to pick up the slack, because new workers would not arrive until the spring thaw. All I did during that time was work, eat, and sleep. I missed my family very much. I felt as if I could never get warm enough.
When the spring thaw arrived, mudslides were common, and we were always dirty. The rains would come and make it difficult to lay a straight tie. We were very careful and meticulous about our work, however, as this is one reason we were hired. The other reason was that there was a labor shortage during that time, and the railroad officials sought and found a ready labor market. Chinese laborers were plentiful, and formed about 90% of the work force. The other ten percent was comprised of Irishmen. We were not always treated well. We were beaten at times and during one of the periods of harsh treatment, we went on strike. The strike did not last long, and scared the railroad bosses into hiring Negroes because they worried that we might strike again. We did not strike again, but they did treat us with