The Devil’s Business:

The Ugly Consequences of Bestiality in Colonial America Resulted in the First Juvenile Execution

Dale M. Brumfield

“And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.” -Leviticus 20:15

IN AUGUST, 1642, an oblivious Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts man walked into a barn to encounter a teenage boy engaged in a sexual act with a horse.