Blue Laws

Blue Laws, statutes regulating personal and public conduct, particularly on the Sabbath; so called because such laws (which originated in Virginia in 1624) reputedly were printed on blue paper in the American colony of New Haven (1638-1665). In his satirical A General History of Connecticut (1781), the Tory clergyman Samuel Andrew Peters provided a list of 45 “blue laws” allegedly drawn up by the zealous Puritan authorities. All of the Puritan colonies of New England enforced strict observance of the Sabbath; in some colonies, expenditures on clothing and personal adornment also were limited by statute. After the American Revolution (1775-1783), blue laws generally fell into abeyance or were repealed. Many such statutes remained on the books, however, and during the Prohibition movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several states enacted new types of blue laws governing the sale and use of liquor and tobacco and providing for local censorship.