Colonial America: The Age of Sodomitical Sin, 1607-1783, by Jonathan Ned Katz

The years from 1607 to 1783 constitute the founding era of what became the United States. In the early years of this era, in these American colonies, the penalty for sodomy was death, and a number of executions are documented. Sodomy was usually conceived of then as anal intercourse between men. But why was sodomy thought of as treason against the state and punished so harshly? And what do we know of sexual and intimate relationships between women in these years, and the laws and responses to such intimacies? This feature presents or references the original documents that Jonathan Ned Katz collected in his books Gay American History (1976) and Gay/Lesbian Almanac (1983), along with evidence that others subsequently discovered. Published originally on OutHistory in 2012.

Legal Case: Plaine Executed, New Haven, 1646

"a monster in human shape"

The New Haven Colony court executed William Plaine (or Plane), one of the original settlers of the town of Guilford.(1)

Background

In 1639, Plaine had been a signer of the Covenant in which the first Guilford settlers, while still aboard ship bound for New England, promised, "the Lord assisting," to be helpful to each other "in every common work, according to every man's ability and as need shall require." They had also promised "not to desert ... each other," without the consent of the majority of the signers. The organization and membership of the church was left until actual settlement. Plaine was assigned a home lot of two acres, and, in 1645, was appointed by the Town Council to build the dam for the Town Mill, and to inspect chimneys as a fire precaution-responsibilities suggesting he was a trusted resident of Guilford. But the following year various charges were brought against him.

The Charges

According to John Winthrop, the charges were that Plaine, though "a married man ... had committed sodomy with two persons in England," and "had corrupted a great part of the youth of Guilford by masturbations ... above a hundred times." When asked about such "filthy practice," Plaine "did insinuate seeds of atheism, questioning whether there was a God."

The Punishment

Winthrop reported in his journal that Governor Eaton of the New Haven Colony had written to the governor of the Massachusetts Colony seeking the magistrates' and church elders' advice about Plaine's punishment. All agreed that he "ought to die," giving different reasons "from the word of God." Winthrop added: "indeed it was horrendum facinus [a dreadful crime], and he a monster in human shape ... , and it tended to the frustrating of the ordinance of marriage and the hindering the generation of mankind." Winthrop's reasons for considering Plaine's activities so wicked, their alleged anti-marriage, anti-procreative effects, summarized two main Puritan objections to sodomy.

Plaine's alleged "questioning whether there was a God," and his unrepentant sexual activity, suggests an active defiance of basic Puritan beliefs and laws.

References

Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay/Lesbian Almanac (NY: Harper & Row, 1983), pp.90-91, citing: Winthrop,History, vol. 2, p. 324. Winthrop gives the year of Plaine's execution as 1646; Smith (below) says it was "about 1648." Also see Bernard Christian Steiner, A History of the Plantation of Menukatuck, and of the Original Town of Guilford, Connecticut (Baltimore: Steiner, 1897), pp. 25, 45, 53, 86, 227, 260; Ralph D. Smith, 'T'he History of Guilford, Connecticut from its First Settlement in 1636. From the Manuscripts (Albany: J. Munsell, 1817), pp. 11-12, 15.