There is no federal statute that sets a punishment for slavery. Why? Because the 13th amendment is an absolute declaration that slavery does not exist in the United States. Period. There is no need of a federal statute to punish the crime of slavery because slavery simply does not exist. It applies to governments as well as individuals. The relevant Supreme Court decision on the matter
http://www.polarisproject.org/resources/state-and-federal-laws
State and Federal Laws
Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons (TIP), is a modern-day form of slavery.
It is a crime under federal and international law; it is also a crime in almost every state in the U.S.
Federal Anti-Trafficking Laws
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 is the first comprehensive federal law to address trafficking in persons. The law provides a three-pronged approach that includes prevention, protection, and prosecution. The TVPA was reauthorized through the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2003, 2005, 2008, and 2013.
Under U.S. federal law, “severe forms of trafficking in persons” includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking:
Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age,
(22 USC § 7102; 8 CFR § 214.11(a)).
Labor trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery,
(22 USC § 7102).
U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report 2009. The linked page contains links to the various portions of the report. I recommend first visiting the maps to learn which countries have the highest incidence and most serious forms of slavery and human trafficking. The report also contains a section describing U.S. Government Domestic Anti-Trafficking Efforts, as well as a list of nine Relevant International Conventions prohibiting various forms of human trafficking.
June 2009 Attorney General's Annual Report to Congress and Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons Fiscal Year 2008, making eight general and several specific recommendations for improving the United States' response to human trafficking, mainly regarding improved coordination among public agencies and increased awareness of the problem within law enforcement and the larger community.
January 2009 Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2007-2008,
showing that authorities investigated over 1200 incidents of human trafficking, and confirmed the incident in over 100 cases in the United States.<---------------
The federal government has enacted a number of laws against slavery and human trafficking, including the following:
Peonage, Slavery, and Trafficking in Persons, 18 U.S.C. 1581 et seq.,
making slavery, the slave trade, and related activities a crime.
Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), 22 U.S.C. 7101 et seq. The introductory section to this law states:
The purposes of this chapter are to combat trafficking in persons, a contemporary manifestation of slavery whose victims are predominantly women and children, to ensure just and effective punishment of traffickers, and to protect their victims.
Sex Trafficking of Children by Force, Fraud, or Coercion, 18 U.S.C. 1591, making sex trafficking of children a crime.
Prevention of Domestic Trafficking in Persons, 42 U.S.C. 14044, requiring the Attorney General to hold an annual conference and issue an annual report on human trafficking.
And here is a link to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, a national, toll-free hotline for reporting incidents of slavery and human trafficking. The number is 1-888-3737-888.
https://sites.google.com/site/huhnconstitutionallaw/discussion/slavery
Chapter 77 ("Peonage, Slavery, and Trafficking in Persons") of Title 18 of the U.S. Code has a number of provisions against slave trading, enslavement, and related crimes. For example,
18 U.S.C. § 1589 ("Forced labor") states:
Quote:
Sec. 1589. Forced labor Whoever knowingly provides or obtains the labor or services of a
person--
(1) by threats of serious harm to, or physical restraint
against, that person or another person;
(2) by means of any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause
the person to believe that, if the person did not perform such labor
or services, that person or another person would suffer serious harm
or physical restraint; or
(3) by means of the abuse or threatened abuse of law or the
legal process,
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or<------------
both. If death results from the violation of this section, or if the
violation includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual
abuse or the attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to
kill,
the defendant shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for <----------------
any term of years or life, or both.