18 U.S.C. § 1585 — Seizure, detention, transportation or sale of slaves

A United States citizen or resident who is a member of the crew or ship’s company of a foreign vessel engaged in the slave trade commits an offense if that person lands from the vessel and, on a foreign shore, seizes someone intending to make that person a slave; tricks or forcibly brings, carries, receives, confines, detains, or transports someone as a slave on board the vessel; offers or tries to sell someone as a slave on board the vessel; transfers or delivers someone to another vessel on the high seas or anywhere on tide water intending to make that person a slave; or lands or delivers someone on shore from the vessel intending to sell that person, or after previously selling that person, as a slave.

A member of the crew or ship’s company of any vessel owned wholly or partly by, or navigated for or on behalf of, a United States citizen commits an offense if that person lands from the vessel and, on a foreign shore, seizes someone intending to make that person a slave; tricks or forcibly brings, carries, receives, confines, detains, or transports someone as a slave on board the vessel; offers or tries to sell someone as a slave on board the vessel; transfers or delivers someone to another vessel on the high seas or anywhere on tide water intending to make that person a slave; or lands or delivers someone on shore from the vessel intending to sell that person, or after previously selling that person, as a slave. The second category does not state that the crew member must be a United States citizen or resident.

The punishment is a fine, imprisonment for up to seven years, or both. This section does not define the terms "foreign vessel," "slave trade," "foreign shore," "high seas," "tide water," or "slave."