The journal, “Subversive Consumption: Nineteenth Consumption Irish Immigrants in America,” by Linda Scott studies Irish immigrants during the nineteenth century in relation to religion, politics, gender norms, race, and labor. The Irish were the first group to immigrate to the United States after the American Revolution. With them, they brought different religious views, as they were Catholic, compared to the majority Puritan that currently lived in the United States. Specifically in New England, the rules and policies were strict because of their Puritan faith. This led to a hatred and opposition to the Irish Catholic faith, as well as the Irish immigrants themselves. They attempted to marginalize those who were Catholic, not only because these, “new populations radically changed the numbers living in the eastern US, but because the religion and ethnicity of the immigrants were so different from those of the former American colonists: wave after wave of Irish, German,Italian, and Russian arrivals were distinctively Catholic and Jewish,” (Scott, 2009). The a huge reason for the Irish to immigrate was the potato famine in 1845. This rose the current immigration numbers from 10,000 to almost half a million each year. This changed the profile of America in several aspects, such as religious views and race. Irish were seen as “aliens,” and were often not allowed to apply for jobs because people refused to hire them. Catholics could not vote, hold office, own property, or allowed to educate their children (Scott, 2009). The Irish started to come together within their communities to fight back against this oppression. They often did not go farther than New York or Boston. A huge recognition of the Irish assimilation came in 1999 with a postage stamp, which was created by the US and Ireland, remembering the immigrants who came because of the Famine (Scott, 2009).
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