In almost all slave societies, rape of a slave by the owner was not a crime (the slave being property). However, rape of a slave by a non-owner could be prosecuted as property damage. In the antebellum South at least one case (State v. Mann, 1830, NC) suggested extreme cruelty might be illegal, but sexual assault remained largely unpunished. Nevertheless, in some colonies (e.g., French Code Noir, Article 26 – though rarely enforced), a master who raped his own slave could be prosecuted. The illegal aspect was raping another man’s slave; the owner’s own sexual abuse was usually legal.
Throughout the 18th century, free Black sailors, indentured servants, and even freedmen were kidnapped and sold into bondage. In Charleston (1772), a ring of brokers forged freedom papers and re-enslaved over 200 legally free people—a crime under both English common law and local slave codes. skacat illegal aspects of legal slavery 18 best
Though the British Slave Trade Act of 1807 is famous, several 18th-century colonial assemblies passed earlier, weaker prohibitions—often ignored. For example, Rhode Island’s 1774 act banning slave importation was routinely flouted by merchants who filed false manifests, listing enslaved Africans as “indentured servants” or “cargo samples.” In almost all slave societies, rape of a