Chinese Labour On The CPR.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Chinese Labour On The CPR

Tyler Herrington

Socials 10

Mr. Lawson

February 8, 2003

Although the majority of British Columbians were of Caucasian descent in the late nineteenth century, it was not the white people who built the railroad; it was the Chinese who carried most of the burden through much sweat and toil. In the 1880's Chinese labourers were brought over from China, promised good pay, one hundred grams of food per day, clean drinking water and safe working environments. To the Chinese, this sounded like a wonderful new life, a much better one than they had in China. It was too good to be true though. Thousands of Chinese labourers were disappointed beginning from their first day on the voyage from China to Canada to work on the Canadian Pacific Railroad, right through to its completion. Four hundred grams of food were originally promised to feed four labourers per day, but the reality was that the Chinese labourers had to share the four hundred grams of food between ten people. As well, the Chinese were only given two cups of water each day. It is very difficult to survive, while performing strenuous