Public Faces, Private Lives
Text from Improper Bostonians

John Winthrop A number of historians have pointed to growing confusion in the early 17th-century over the meaning of "masculine" friendships. Custom allowed men to express love for one another openly - even to become "bedfellows" - without the accusation of sodomy. Questions were rarely raised unless such relationships subverted the social order through favoritism toward a servant or through undue influence over a social superior. Perhaps one of the best examples of this ambivalence over same-sex love comes from John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. On the one hand, he felt comfortable declaring his love for Sir William Springe prior to his sailing to North America. Later, however, Winthrop supported the execution for sodomy of William Plaine of Guilford when approached by the leadership of New Haven Colony. Letter from John Winthrop to William Springe, 8 February 1630: "I loved you truly before I could think that you took any notice of me: but now I embrace you and rest in your love: and delight to solace my first thoughts in these sweet affections of so dear a friend. The apprehension of your love and worth together hath overcome my heart, and removed the veil of modesty, that I must needs tell you, my soul is knit to you, as the soul of Jonathan to David: were I now with you, I should bedew that sweet bosom with the tears of affection..."