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.

William Stephens: "Sodomy," August 7, 1743

A Sunday entry in the journal of William Stephens, the Secretary and President of the Province of Georgia, records:

The Ordinary Service of the day, which was performed in the usual manner was all I had to take notice of; unless a Story I had from Mr. Spencer be worth mentioning, which was a little Surprizing, of one Male being convicted of Sodomy, and executed for the same a little before he [Spencer] left Frederica. He [the man executed] was by profession a Surgeon Apothecary, and said to be born of reputable Parents in Dublin, where his Father had been Chief Magistrate.¹

If this report is accurate it is the fifth documented execution for sodomy in the 18th century, in the American colonies or new United States. "Sodomy" at this time might refer to human intercourse with human or human with beasts.²

Notes

1 William Stephens, The Journal of . . . : 1741-1743, ed. by E. Merton Coulter, Wormsloe Foundation Publications Number Two (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1958), vol. II, p. 3. Jonathan Ned Katz thanks Stephen W. Foster for informing him of this document.

2 DeathPenaltyInfo.org, accessed December 13, 2013 at: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/ESPYyear.pdf See also: Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., "Lawrence v. Texas: An Historic Human Rights Victory. Published in Flagpole Magazine (October 15, 2003), page 9. Accessed December 13, 2013 from: http://www.law.uga.edu/dwilkes_more/47lawrence.html Wikles is listed as Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law.