By Sophia DaCosta
From the moment that the Puritan Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth in 1620, the importance of religion in the British-American colonies was a particularly important topic. After fleeing the Anglican Church of England because they objected to many of its practices, it did not take long for the Puritans to denounce other religions in their communities. For instance, Baptist Roger Williams had to flee his Puritan neighborhood to gain religious independence, founding Rhode Island in the process. As a byproduct of the Anglicans pushing the Puritans into fleeing for America, some of the most prominent religious tension within the colonies grew between these two groups. With the Anglicans loyal to the Church of England and many Puritans supporting the Continental Army, religion was an interesting factor in the Revolutionary War.
In 1781, an Anglican clergyman named Samuel Peters, spurred by revenge against his Connecticut neighbors who forced him to leave the colonies, published a controversial book. Written in 1781, near the end of the Revolutionary War, A General History of Connecticut included a variety of tall tales aimed at slandering both the people of Connecticut and the American colonies. Famously, Peters described a July night in 1758 in which frogs from a swamp near Windham, Connecticut, decided to march through the roads. He stated that the townspeople were so frightened, believing the frogs were a French or Native American army, that they ran screaming from the town.[1] This particular story may seem inconsequential, but some of the other tale tales Peters wrote about were not as trivial.
According to Peters, the New Haven area and the American colonies as a whole followed a set of absurd rules, called “Blue Laws,” based on the Puritan religion. Some examples include:
No one shall run on the Sabbath-day, or walk in his garden or elsewhere, except reverently to and from meeting…No woman shall kiss her child on the Sabbath or fasting day…No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep house, cut hair, or shave on the Sabbath day…Whoever brings cards or dice into this Dominion shall pay a fine of five pounds…No one shall read Common-Prayer, keep Christmas or Saints days, make minced pies, dance, play cards, or play on any instrument of music, except the drum, trumpet, and jews-harp… Married people must live together or be imprisoned…Every male shall have his hair cut round according to a cap.”
Peters stated that disobeying these rules would result in “excommunications, confiscation, fines, banishment, whippings, cutting off the ears, burning the tongue, and death,” if broken.[2] While these were compelling tales, Peters’ A General History of Connecticut was a collection of exaggerated falsehoods.
There are a variety of reasons why Samuel Peters’ claims are inaccurate. Most obviously, frogs cannot march through the streets. In fact, Peters used the fact that Windham was known for being an area of Connecticut where the frogs are extraordinarily loud to create this tall tale.[3] Additionally, a book written in 1876 sought to disprove Peters’ claims about the “Blue Laws.” Titled The True Blue Laws of Connecticut and New Haven and the False Blue Laws Forged by Peters, the collection included documentation that detailed all of the real laws and codes enacted in Connecticut and New Haven within the period of time Peters wrote about. Future Connecticut historians even referred to A General History of Connecticut as, “the Lying History to distinguish it from all others.”[4]
Peters’ motives inculpate him. As an Anglican clergyman, Peters faced hostility from Puritans for his religion. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Puritans were suspicious of the intentions of the Anglicans that lived in the colonies. Not over the persecution they faced at the hands of the Church of England, Puritans believed the Anglicans were trying to convert the colonists. Samuel Peters was educated at Yale, where he faced discrimination for not being a Puritan. Growing up in this environment, Peters became a known Loyalist snob. He looked down on his Congressionalist, Yankee neighbors and even wrote counter-propaganda to combat anti-English sentiment present in the colonies before the Revolutionary War.[5] Combined, Peters’ story of the frogs in Windham and the “Blue Laws,” presented the Connecticut Puritans as cowardly, nonsensical, and cruel.
While most New Englanders quickly identified A General History of Connecticut as libel, many British readers and even some colonists believed Samuel Peters’ claims. Readers did not know what to make of Peters’ book. Scholar Henry Wonham argued that the people couldn’t identify the fact from the fiction because the history was a unique blend of studied truth and exaggerated fabrication. More importantly, Wonham pointed out that Peters’ work confirmed many Britons’ beliefs about the colonists. It only added to their preconceived notions that the colonists were cowards and were dangerously obsessive about their religion.[6]
The American Revolutionary War can help us put this into perspective. The Siege of Yorktown took place in 1781, when Peters’ book was published. Ending in October of 1781, Yorktown marked a brutal turning point in the war where the Colonial and French forces were able to defeat a substantial portion of the British forces. Although the war technically continued for two more years, Yorktown was the last major land battle of the Revolutionary War. With A General History of Connecticut being published the same year, Peters aimed to convince the British that they were better off without the colonists. He contributed to the growing sentiment that the colonies should be abandoned and the war should end. If the colonists were religious nuts, as Peters alleged, it would be easier for the British people to justify the army surrendering to the colonies and granting them their independence.
Peters’ history continues to shape people’s opinions about the colonial Puritans to this day. One of Peters’ relatives republished the original book in 1877 with a chapter dedicated to defending its accuracy. This allowed Samuel Peters’ book to remain in circulation for a long period of time, despite its falseness.[7] In some ways, the Puritans were extremely strict and did exile or punished people for their beliefs. But Peters’ A General History of Connecticut is an exaggeration and should be forgotten.
[1] Wonham, Henry B. “In the Name of Wonder: The Emergence of Tall Narrative in American Writing,” American Quarterly, Vol. 41, Issue 2 (June 1989).
[2] Middlebrook, Samuel. “Samuel Peters: A Yankee Munchausen,” The New England Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Mar., 1947).
[3] Wonham, Henry B. “In the Name of Wonder: The Emergence of Tall Narrative in American Writing,” American Quarterly, Vol. 41, Issue 2 (June 1989).
[4] J. Sabine, Dictionary of Books Relating to America, XIV, 501.
[5] Middlebrook, Samuel. “Samuel Peters: A Yankee Munchausen,” The New England Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Mar., 1947).
[6] Wonham, Henry B. “In the Name of Wonder: The Emergence of Tall Narrative in American Writing,” American Quarterly, Vol. 41, Issue 2 (June 1989).
[7] Wonham, Henry B. “In the Name of Wonder: The Emergence of Tall Narrative in American Writing,” American Quarterly, Vol. 41, Issue 2 (June 1989), 286.