author
Samuel Peters
1735–1826
A fiery Anglican minister and Loyalist exile, this early American writer is best remembered for a vivid, controversial history of colonial Connecticut. His work helped popularize the phrase “blue laws,” even as readers have long debated how much of his storytelling was fact and how much was satire.
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About the author
Born in Hebron, Connecticut, in 1735, Samuel Andrew Peters was educated at Yale and later ordained in the Church of England. He returned to Connecticut as rector of St. Peter’s Church, building a reputation as an energetic clergyman with strong opinions and a taste for argument.
During the years leading up to the American Revolution, his Loyalist sympathies made him an increasingly divisive figure. He left Connecticut for England in 1774, and from abroad he wrote about the colony he had known so well, mixing history, political grievance, folklore, and sharp satire.
He is best known for A General History of Connecticut (1781), a book famous for its colorful and often unreliable portrait of New England life. Though historians have challenged many of its claims, the book endured and left a lasting mark on American cultural history, especially through its association with the term “blue laws.”