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.

Sodomy Law: Massachusetts Bay, 1648

"severely punished"

The Massachusetts Body of Laws and Liberties, passed in 1641 but not before printed, constituted the first collection of statutes published in the American colonies.(1) The origins of these Massachusetts statutes were partly Mosaic, partly English common law, and partly an original colonial invention. The sodomy provision was identical to the Massachusetts law of 1641, except for the addition that boys under fourteen, or the party who was forced, were to be "severely punished," but not put to death.

This Massachusetts law was next revised in 1697.

References

Adapted from Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay/Lesbian Almanac (NY: Harper & Row, 1983), p. 92, which cites Max Farrand, ed., Book of the General Lawes and Liberties of Massachusetts (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1929), p. 5. The list of capital crimes is the same as that printed on the 1643 London broadside; the sodomy provision cites Genesis 19:5 in the margin.