Discover how Wuyi Chinese laborers built the Transcontinental Railroad—then were erased from history in an enduring act of racial exclusion.
For millions of overseas Chinese today, the story begins not in a distant city or a famous port, but in the quiet villages of a small region in southern China — Wuyi. Tucked within Jiangmen City in Guangdong Province, Wuyi is made up of five counties: Taishan, Kaiping, Enping, Xinhui, and Heshan. Though modest in…
Between 1865 and 1890, over 1,200 Chinese laborers worked on Montana’s railroads, including the Northern Pacific Railway. Most were young men from Taishan and Kaiping in Guangdong’s Wuyi region, recruited through clan networks to replace Irish crews deemed too costly. These men left their families behind, hoping to earn enough to send money home or…
The abolition of slavery in the mid-19th century reshaped global labor markets, driving a surge in Chinese labor migration to replace enslaved workers in plantations, railroads, and mines. Facing poverty, war, and political turmoil, thousands of Chinese laborers embarked on perilous ocean journeys, enduring exploitation, deception, and harsh working conditions under the coolie trade. This…