Document: Dutch colonial council minutes, 25 June 1646

[ 25th of June 1646 ]

The honorable director general and council of New Netherland, having seen the criminal charges of the fiscal against Jan Creoly, Negro slave of the honorable Company, from which it appears that Jan Creoly aforesaid is accused by some Negroes of having committed sodomy by force with a boy of about ten years, named Manuel Congo, also a Negro, whereupon the said Jan Creoly was placed in confinement and examined in the presence of the aforesaid boy, who without being threatened in any way confessed to the deed in the presence of the prisoner. After the previous examination the aforesaid Jan Creoly, at present a prisoner, has without torture and while free from irons confessed having committed sodomy with the aforesaid boy and that he had also committed the said heinous and abominable crime on the island of Curaçao, on account of which sins God Almighty overthrew Sodom and Gamorrah of the plain and exterminated the inhabitants from the earth. (Genesis, ch. 19. See also God's covenant, Leviticus, ch. 18, v. 22; and in the same chapter, v. 29, God says: "For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.") For which reason such a man is not worthy to associate with mankind and the crime on account of its heinousness may not be tolerated or suffered, in order that the wrath of God may not descend upon us as it did upon Sodom. Therefore, having invoked the name of God so as to pass a just judgment and wishing to do justice, we condemn the said Jan Creoly, as we do hereby, to be brought to the place of justice to be strangled there to death and his body to be burned to ashes, as an example to others. This day, the 25th of June 1646.

The honorable director general and council of New Netherland having examined Manual Congo, aged about ten years, regarding the crime committed on him by Jan Creoly, Negro, he confesses that the same was committed by force and violence, as those who were present declared and which in view of the abomination is not described here, the said Creoly having likewise confessed that he committed the crime by force, without the consent of the boy. And although according to law a person with whom sodomy has been committed deserves to be put to death, yet, in view of the innocence and youth of the boy, we have ordered that he be brought to the place where Jan Creoly shall be executed and that he be tied to a post, with wood piled around him, and be made to view the execution and be beaten with rods. This day, the 25th of June 1646, this sentence was executed.