Chinese

Essay by angel321High School, 10th gradeA-, February 2004

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In 1842 the Chinese came to work the gold fields in British Columbia they worked in Fraser valley and then they went into farming, gardening, domestic service, road construction, and railway builders.

When the United States got rid of slavery they found a new way to have cheap labour the Chinese. The Chinese immigrants mainly came from the coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. They came from a life of poverty, and unrest and came to a country were they had to work really hard also there was a lot of racism against them. In 1849 Chinese came to North America and settled in San Francisco they came to look for gold. When the gold in California was gone they moved to Fraser River Valley in Vancouver in 1858. They did not know they could only work the mines when the white people had left.

In the 19th century some Chinese came willingly other were kidnapped by press gangs and sent to North America.

Some were looking for gold but most ended up building s section of the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia . There was about seventeen thousand Chinese who helped build the railroad which were paid half as much as the white workers. These wages were about the same until the 1930's in Canada.

The Chinese also worked as launderers and cooks. They also worked in fish factories, or worked for rich white families. The Chinese were understanding because they were cheap labour.

In 1885 the last spike was stuck into the CPR track, there was thousands of laborers were out of work. People always saw Chinese as taking always work from the white workers. Canada in later years put a head tax on Chinese they wanted to come into Canada. When the railroad was done many...