Sodomy law: Connecticut, December 1, 1642
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Almanac p 85
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 (I) 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, (II) perjury with intent to cause a man to lose his life, and (12) treason.
This law was readopted in a codification of 1650, May (see).
References
- ↑ The high rate of birth and population increase is discussed in Henretta, Evolution, pp. 9-13, 26, 57-80; Thompson, Women, pp. 54, 134. Also see Philip Greven, "Historical Demography and Colonial America, A Review Article," William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 3 (July 1967), pp. 438-54 (especially p.445); Wilson H. Grabill, Clyde V. Kiser, and Pascal K. Whelpton, "A Long View," pp. 374-96 in Micbael Gordon, ed., The American Family in Social Historical Perspective (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1973); Daniel Scott Smith, "The Demographic History of Colonial New England," pp. 397-415 in Gordon (see above).
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