Panama: Crossroads of Empires · Episode 10 of 24 · 19 min
The Panama Canal Opens: World War One and the Gold vs. Silver Color Line
The SS Ancon made the first official canal transit on August 15, 1914, just as Europe went to war and the world barely noticed. Behind the engineering was the Gold Roll and Silver Roll, a segregation system that functioned as Jim Crow in the Canal Zone. Roughly 150,000 Black West Indian workers dug the canal and bore most of the deaths.
Who's who
- Constantine ParkinsonWest Indian worker whose 1963 firsthand account is quoted
- Albert BanisterWest Indian worker whose 1963 firsthand account is quoted
- John StevensChief Engineer whose 1906 order moved Black workers off the Gold Roll
- Theodore Roosevelt+14 more episodesOrdered in 1908 that no more non-Americans join the Gold Roll
- Woodrow Wilson+9 more episodesPresident at the opening; detonated the Gamboa Dike by telegraph
Where it happens
- Panama Canal+3 more episodesOpened to traffic in August 1914
- Gamboa Dike, PanamaBlown in 1913 to flood the Culebra Cut
- Canal Zone, Panama+5 more episodesSegregated U.S.-run territory
- Jamaica and BarbadosMain origins of the West Indian workforce
Timeline
- 1904U.S. institutes the Gold Roll and Silver Roll payroll
- November 1906Stevens orders most Black workers moved off the Gold Roll
- February 1908Roosevelt fixes the Gold Roll as racial
- October 10, 1913Wilson detonates the Gamboa Dike
- August 15, 1914SS Ancon makes the first official transit
- 1960sGold/Silver system finally phased out
Still debated
Wage figures varied by year and job and are given only approximately. Silver deaths were under-recorded, so the toll of about 5,600 in the American era, and 25,000-27,500 for French and American construction combined, are minimums.
← PreviousConquering the Jungle: How a Doctor Nobody Believed Won the Panama CanalNext →The Canal Zone: A Country Cut in Two, and the U-Boats Off Colón
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