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.

Jean Bernard Bossu: the Choctaws are "morally quite perverted," 1751-1762

In his Travels in the Interior of North America,1751-1762, translated from the French, Bossu says that the men of the Choctaw tribe of Native Americans are "morally quite perverted, and most of them are addicted to sodomy. These corrupt men, who have long hair and wear short skirts like the women, are held in great contempt."*

Notes

*Jean-Bernard Bossu, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1751- 1762, translated and edited by Seymour Feiler (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), p. 169.