English, Department of
Title
Homosexuals and the Death Penalty in Colonial America
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
1976
Abstract
This article traces the legislative history of statutes prescribing the death penalty for sodomy in 17th-century New England and in the other American colonies. New England and some middle colonies broke with English legal tradition by adopting explicitly biblical language. After the Revolution, Pennsylvania took the lead, in 1786, in dropping the death penalty.
Download
Comments
Published in Journal of Homosexuality, Vol. 1(3), 1976. Used by permission.