'The Cry of Sodom Enquired Into: Bestiality and the Wilderness of Human Nature in Seventeenth-Century New England.

Led by John Winthrop, Puritan settlers worried about how to control personal frailties that occasionally inclined them toward bestiality. Their laws were clear and specific on this subject and reflected fears that they might not be able to control the "beast" within them. In 1674, Samuel Danforth issued the definitive New England statement on the effects of bestiality in 'The Cry of Sodom Enquired Into.' Although by then the epidemic outbreak of the 1640's had faded, the "cry of Sodom in the wilderness" remained strong.