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"Strange Flesh" in the City on the Hill: Early Massachusetts Sodomy Laws and Puritan Spiritual Anxiety, 1629-1699

Lamson, Lisa Rose
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395605424

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, History.
In his sermon at the execution of a convicted man, Puritan minister Samuel Danforth used the term "strange flesh" to describe the man's deeds, which in the present would be recognized as sodomy and bestiality. Danforth and other Puritan leaders took responsibility for the spiritual welfare of all the people in their community; sexual activities that they associated with God's enemies terrified them. Believing that their spiritual “city on a hill” was threatened, these leaders tried to deter such behavior not only through passionate sermons that railed against “strange flesh” but through explicit civil laws that mandated harsh penalties for those who persisted. This project focuses on the language in legal and religious texts used by magistrates in Massachusetts Bay from 1629 to 1699. It makes explicit the links connecting law, sex, and religion in this early period. By reading the religious and legal texts together, and paying close attention to the sodomy and bestiality statutes, I show how spiritual anxiety over “strange flesh”dictated legal policy regarding sexual activity. The Bay Colony leaders enacted specific legal statutes because they feared “God's Judgment”; since some people in the community practiced the biblical “abomination” of “unnatural sex.” My working argument is that the conjunction of religious and legal texts created different groups of “other” within the community that established and reinforced the Puritan “godliness” and their “city on the hill.” Legal statutes, legal commentary, and religious commentary provide the main primary sources for this project. Massachusetts Bay lawmakers consolidated individual legislation against “buggery” and “sodomy” into colonial legal codes in the mid-seventeenth century, and English legal manuals describing “buggery” in great detail circulated in the Atlantic world during this time period. Further, Massachusetts Bay Puritan leaders relied heavily on particular passages in the King James Version of the Holy Bible, especially Leviticus and Romans. The appeal to biblical precedent in the creation of law distinguishes these colonial elites and reveals their preoccupation with sexual sin, God's wrath, and spiritual punishment. The scholarship on deviant sexuality in early America focuses on the modern construct of ;homosexuality, which colonial Massachusetts people did not recognize as a sexual identifier. The secondary literature, including the works by Richard Godbeer, John Murrin, and Rodger Thompson, aimed to establish that homosexual behavior both existed and was tolerated in this early period far more than the popular literature has portrayed. These scholars have paid insufficient attention to the many biblical references in the legal record and have missed the crucial link between the two. As my project shows, Puritan interpretations of biblical passages and their inclusion in the legal record are pivotal in the story of early colonial sexuality.
Ruth Wallis Herndon, PhD (Advisor)
Renee Heberle, PhD (Committee Member)
Christine Eisel, PhD (Committee Member)
96 p.
American History; History; Law; Legal Studies; Spirituality; Theology
Colonial America; law; religion; Puritans; sodomy; bestiality; buggery; sermons; Early American; Massachusetts Bay Colony;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lamson, L. R. (2014). "Strange Flesh" in the City on the Hill: Early Massachusetts Sodomy Laws and Puritan Spiritual Anxiety, 1629-1699 [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395605424

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lamson, Lisa. "Strange Flesh" in the City on the Hill: Early Massachusetts Sodomy Laws and Puritan Spiritual Anxiety, 1629-1699. 2014. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395605424.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lamson, Lisa. ""Strange Flesh" in the City on the Hill: Early Massachusetts Sodomy Laws and Puritan Spiritual Anxiety, 1629-1699." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395605424

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.