Buggery law: New Jersey, 1702

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East and West New Jersey were united as one royal colony, and their proprietors surrendered all claims to govern to the crown.[1] No sodomy law was passed before the revolution, although since New Jersey was a royal colony, the English, buggery act was formally in effect. In 1796, the state of New Jersey removed the death penalty for sodomy, punishing the crime with a fine and imprisonment for up to twenty-one years.


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References

Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay/Lesbian Almanac (NY: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 124-25.

  1. 1702: New Jersey "buggery" law; Andrews, Colonial, pp. 177-78; Crompton, "Homosexuals," pp. 283-84, 287. For the law of 1796 see Wm. Patterson, Laws of the State of New-Jersey; Revised and Published Under the Authority of the Legislature


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