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: Rhode Island, 1663

death for "sodomy" or "buggery"

The Rhode Island Colony revised its sodomy law of 1647. The new statute dropped the earlier law's New Testament citations, adopting a wording more like that of the English buggery law.(1)

The law of 1663 read:

... whosoever shall perpetuate and commit the Detestable and Abominable Crimes of Sodomy, or Buggery, and be thereof Lawfully Convicted, shall suffer the Pains of Death, as in Cases of Felony, with benefit of Clergy.

This Rhode Island law was next revised in 1798 when the death penalty for sodomy was abolished.

References

Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay/Lesbian Almanac (NY: Harper & Row, 1983), p. 105, citing Acts and Laws of His Majesties Colony of Rhode Island. . . (Boston: Nicholas Boone, 1719), p. 6. This law, as first published in 1719, provided that those convicted of sodomy be punished by death "with benefit of Clergy." This was probably a printer's error for "without" benefit of clergy -- an error which might theoretically have removed the mandatory death penalty for sodomy. "Benefit of Clergy" provided an exemption of the death penalty for the clergy and some others.