In 1782 the Reverend Samuel Peters published (in England) a book titled A General History of Connecticut. The book included sensational details about "blue laws" that had supposedly once existed in Connecticut. (Blue laws are puritanical laws designed to regulate public morality.)

For instance, Peters claimed it had once been against the law in Connecticut to run on Sunday, unless one was going to church. There was also a law that "every male should have his hair cut round, according to a cap." Law breakers could face punishments such as whipping, cutting off of the ears, or even death.

In fact, there was no evidence such laws had ever existed. Peters had made them up. He was a wealthy Anglican who had been forced to leave the country during the American Revolution, and this was apparently his way of getting back at the country that had exiled him, by portraying its people and laws as repressive and fanatical.