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.

Buggery Law: North Carolina and South Carolina, March, 1663

death for "buggery"

From the first major settlement, in the 1660s, of the area which later became North and South Carolina, the English "buggery" law was apparently regarded as in force, although neither colony's law made explicit reference to this crime.(1)

South Carolina first passed its own "buggery" law by enacting the text of the English statute in (see Buggery law: South Carolina, 1712).

North Carolina's first explicit statutory reference to "buggery" was its law of 1792.

The death penalty for the crime was abolished in North Carolina in 1869.

References

Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay/Lesbian Almanac (NY: Harper & Row, 1983), p. 104, citing Francois Xavier Martin, ed., A Collection of the Statutes of the Parliament of England in Force in North Carolina (New Been, N. C.: The Editor's Press, 1792), p. 208, where the English statute of 1533 is cited as in effect as of 1792, suggesting it was in force during the early colonial period.