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.

Sodomy Case: Georgia, March 25, 1734

Three hundred lashes for "sodomy" in Savannah

The diary of Johann Boltzius and Israel Gronau, Lutheran pastors who ministered to German settlers in the Georgia colony, reported a sodomy case:

Today an execution of judgment was held here in Savannah. A man from this place had been accused and convicted of sodomy and inciting others, for which he was to receive three hundred lashes under the gallows . . . (1)

References

Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay/Lesbian Almanac (NY: Harper & Row, 1983), p. 133, citing Johann Boltzius and Israel Gronau, "Excerpts from the Original Diary of . . ." Translated and annotated by Wm. H. Brown, in Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emigrants Who Settled in America . . . Edited by Samuel Urlsperger, vol. 3, translated and edited by George F. Jones and Marie Hahn (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1972), p. 314. Katz thanks Stephen W. Foster for informing him of this document.