Chinese Canadian Life On The Railway
Chinese Canadian Life On The Railway
Chine
Library and Archives Canada, C-006686B, Boorne & May, 1884. http://data2.archives.ca/ap/c/c006686.jpg
critical
the
thinking consortium
#2
Chine
Image I-30869, Accession Number: 198401-006, 1883, courtesy of Royal BC Museum, BC Archives.
critical
the
thinking consortium
#3
Chine
critical
the
thinking consortium
Excerpt from an 1883 newspaper article that discusses the lack of medical care for Chinese workers on the C.P.R.
Chine
Comments in brackets are not part of the original document. They have been added to assist the reader with difficult words.
Yale Sentinel 1883 Here in British Columbia along the line of the railway, the Chinese workmen are fast disappearing under the ground. No Medical attention is furnished nor apparently much interest felt for these poor creatures. We understand that Mr. Onderdonk declines interfering, while the Lee Chuck Co. (labour contractors), that brought the Chinamen from their native land, refused, through their agent Lee Soon, who is running the Chinese gang at Emory, to become responsible for doctors and medicine.
Yale Sentinel (1883), quoted in Berton, Pierre. The Last Spike. Toronto: Anchor Canada, 1971.
critical
the
thinking consortium
#5
Chine
Image B-09758, Accession Number: 193501-001, 1886, courtesy of Royal BC Museum, BC Archives.
critical
the
thinking consortium
#6
Chine
Comments in brackets are not part of the original document. They have been added to assist the reader with difficult words.
American Union Telegrapgh No 120 June 11, 1883 [A]dvise government allow no more Chinamen emigrate [to] British Columbia as two thousand died [this] past year from exposure[,] accidents[,] and other causes. [I]f [this is] inaccurate or misleading [it] should be corrected, considering [the] effect [on] other emigrants.
[Signed] Galt
Library and Archives Canada, MG26-A, Volume 220, Page 93790, From London to Sir John A. Macdonald, Correspondence, June 11, 1883.
critical
the
thinking consortium
#7
Chine
Image D-07548, Catalogue Number HP072553, Accession Number 193501-001, 1883, courtesy of Royal BC Museum, BC Archives.
critical
the
thinking consortium
#8
Chine
Comments in brackets are not part of the original document. They have been added to assist the reader with difficult words.
The Great North Western Telegraph Co. Secretary of State in Ottawa January 27, 1885
My ministers desire me to refer you to their Minute of 21st Nov [a letter or dispatch sent November 21st] respecting destitution [poverty] among Chinese recently dismissed [laid off] from Dominion railway works [the C.P.R.], to request [that] I may be informed by telegraph how far [the] Dominion govt (government) will be prepared to assist in extending immediate relief [financial help] as considerable numbers of these wretched [miserable] creatures are now reduced to actual starvation. [Signed] C.F. Cornwall
Library and Archives Canada, RG6-A-1, Volume 60, File 2235, Items 10-11
critical
the
thinking consortium
#9
Chine
Glenbow Archives NA-3740-29, Chinese work gang, Canadian Pacific Railway tracks near Summit, British Columbia, William Notman and Son, Montreal , Quebec, 1889.
critical
the
thinking consortium
#1
Chine
Comments in brackets are not part of the original document. They have been added to assist the reader with difficult words.
Although Chinese played a key role in building the western stretch of the railway, they earned between $1 and $2.50 per day. Unlike their fellow white railroad workers, the Chinese had to pay for their own food, clothing, transportation to the job site, mail, and medical care, leaving barely enough money to send home. Chinese workers were delegated the most dangerous construction jobs, such as working with explosives. Not only did families of those killed workers not receive any compensation, they were not even notified of the deaths .... The Chinese railway workers lived in poor conditions, often in camps, sleeping in tents or boxcars. Often doing their own cooking over open outdoor fires, these Chinese men primarily ate a diet of rice, dried salmon and tea. Because most could not afford fresh fruit and vegetables, many of the men suffered from scurvy, an agonizing disease caused by a diet lacking in vitamin C. Because there was no proper medical care, many Chinese workers depended on herbal cures to help them. Due to these poor living conditions, many Chinese workers became ill. In the frosty winters of British Columbia, open fires were the only way of keeping warm. Whenever the workers put down more tracks, the camps had to be moved further down the line. When it was time to move camp, the Chinese workers would take down their tents, pack their belongings and move everything to the next camp, often hiking over 40 kilometres.
Work: Railways. The Chinese Experience in Canada: 1850 1950. The University of British Columbia, n.d., http://www.library.ubc.ca/chineseinbc/railways.html.
critical
the
thinking consortium
#2
Comments in brackets are not part of the original document. They have been added to assist the reader with difficult words.
Chinese coolies ... could be employed for one dollar a day. In addition, they did not require all the paraphernalia of a first-class camp. The coolie was prepared to move about in the wilderness, set up his own camp, and pack all his belongings, provisions, and camp equipment on his back. Michael Haney, who went to work for Onderdonk in 1883, discovered that it was possible to move two thousand Chinese at a distance of twenty-five miles and have them at work all within twenty-four hours Many inflammatory incidents occurred because of accidents along this line, for which the Chinese blamed the white foremen. On one such occasion, about ten miles below Hope, a foreman named Miller failed to give his gang warning of a coming explosion; a piece of rock thrown up by the subsequent blast blew one coolies head right off. His comrades took off after Miller, who plunged into the river to save himself .... Deaths appeared to happen oftener [sic] among the Chinese labourers than in the white group.
Berton, Pierre. The Great Railway. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1974, p. 296-298.
critical
the
thinking consortium
#3
Comments in brackets are not part of the original document. They have been added to assist the reader with difficult words.
Little is known about life in the railway camps to which the Chinese were sent because almost no Chinese records or diaries have been found that survive from that time. Perhaps the misery of their conditions precluded the workers from speaking much about them after they returned to China or settled elsewhere in Canada . Today the Chinese in Canada have a saying that a Chinese worker died for every foot of railroad through the canyons. While this is, of course, an exaggeration, Lee estimates that at least 600 Chinese died during railroad construction, more than 4 for every mile. This is probably a conservative estimate, since it is based on Onderdonks testimony to the Royal Commission.
Wickberg, Edgar, et al. From China to Canada: A history of the Chinese communities in Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982, p. 22-23.
critical
the
thinking consortium
#4
Comments in brackets are not part of the original document. They have been added to assist the reader with difficult words.
Part of the railway in British Columbia was built by an American named Andrew Onderdonk, who was under contract with the C.P.R. The line through the Fraser Canyon was incredibly difficult and expensive to build, and by 1881 Onderdonk was short of both money and workers. He solved his problems by hiring Chinese men at low wages. Between 1881 and 1885, more than 17,000 Chinese immigrants came to British Columbia to work on the railway. They were paid just a dollar a day, less than half the rate paid to European workers. They generally lived in separate camps and paid for food and lodging. Their work was dangerous and difficult; it is estimated that more than 600 workers lost their lives through accidents and illness. According to some sources, the number reached 1200.
Horizons: Canadas emerging identity (Second Edition). Michael Cranny, Graham Jarvis, Garvin Moles and Bruce Seney, eds. Don Mills: Pearson Education Canada, 2009, p. 235.
critical
the
thinking consortium