§ 1585. — Seizure, detention, transportation or sale of slaves.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 18USC1585]
TITLE 18--CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I--CRIMES
CHAPTER 77--PEONAGE AND SLAVERY
Sec. 1585. Seizure, detention, transportation or sale of slaves
Whoever, being a citizen or resident of the United States and a
member of the crew or ship's company of any foreign vessel engaged in
the slave trade, or whoever, being of the crew or ship's company of any
vessel owned in whole or in part, or navigated for, or in behalf of, any
citizen of the United States, lands from such vessel, and on any foreign
shore seizes any person with intent to make that person a slave, or
decoys, or forcibly brings, carries, receives, confines, detains or
transports any person as a slave on board such vessel, or, on board such
vessel, offers or attempts to sell any such person as a slave, or on the
high seas or anywhere on tide water, transfers or delivers to any other
vessel any such person with intent to make such person a slave, or lands
or delivers on shore from such vessel any person with intent to sell, or
having previously sold, such person as a slave, shall be fined under
this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 773; Pub. L. 103-322, title XXXIII,
Sec. 330016(1)(K), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Secs. 421, 422, 425 (Mar. 4,
1909, ch. 321, Secs. 246, 247, 250, 35 Stat. 1138, 1139).
Section consolidates and restores three basic sections (act May 25,
1820, ch. 113, Secs. 4, 5, 3 Stat. 600, 601; act Apr. 20, 1818, ch. 91,
Sec. 4, 3 Stat. 451). As reenacted in the Revised Statutes, such
sections were extended and broadened beyond such basic acts. The
language at the beginning, ``being a citizen or resident of the United
States'', was inserted from said section 425 of title 18, U.S.C., 1940
ed., as enacted originally. While the basic provisions of said sections
421 and 422 are thus broadened, their application as enacted in the 1909
Criminal Code is narrowed.
Designation in said section 421 of title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., of
offender as a ``pirate'' was omitted as unnecessary. The punishment
provision of section 1582 of this title (incorporated by reference in
said section 425) has been adopted as consistent with other slave-trade
statutes rather than the life-imprisonment penalty contained in said
sections 421 and 422 of title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed. However, the
requirement in section 1582 of this title that one-half the fine be for
the ``use of the person prosecuting the indictment to effect'' was
omitted as meaningless.
Mandatory-punishment provisions were rephrased in the alternative.
Amendments
1994--Pub. L. 103-322 substituted ``fined under this title'' for
``fined not more than $5,000''.
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in section 1961 of this title; title 8
section 1101.
