Difference between revisions of "Sodomy law: Connecticut, December 1, 1642"

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{{Curated Exhibit|exhibit name and link=[[Colonial America: The Age of Sodomitical Sin|Colonial America: The Age of Sodomitical Sin]]|firstname=Jonathan Ned|lastname=Katz}}
 
{{Curated Exhibit|exhibit name and link=[[Colonial America: The Age of Sodomitical Sin|Colonial America: The Age of Sodomitical Sin]]|firstname=Jonathan Ned|lastname=Katz}}

Revision as of 15:38, 11 April 2008

The General Court of Connecticut adopted a list of twelve capital crimes, all but the rape law based on the Massachusetts Bay Colony's Liberties of 1641.[1] The capital crimes in Connecticut were:

(1) idolatry
(2) witchcraft,
(3) blasphemy
(4) murder with malice aforethought
(5) murder through poisoning
(6) bestiality
(7) sodomy. Here referred to only as "man lying with man,"
(8) adultery
(9) rape
(10) kidnapping
(11) perjury with intent to cause a man to lose his life
(12) treason


This law was readopted in a codification of 1650, May.


References

  1. Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay/Lesbian Almanac (NY: Harper & Row, 1983), p 85, citing J. Hammond Trumbull, ed., The Public Records of the Colony Of Connecticut (Hartford: Lockwood and Brainard, 1850), vol. I, pp. 77-78; Mary Jeanne Anderson Jones, Congregational Commonwealth: Connecticut 1636-62 (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1968), pp. 101-102.
This entry is part of the featured exhibit Colonial America: The Age of Sodomitical Sin curated by Jonathan Ned Katz. As it is content created by a named author, editor, or curator, it is not open to editing by the general public. But we strongly encourage you to discuss the content or propose edits on the discussion page, and the author, editor, or curator will make any changes that improve the entry or its content. Thanks.