Now enrolling for 2025/26 school year. K4 through 8th grade.
The 18th century saw the peak of legalized chattel slavery in the Atlantic world—British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch empires all codified human bondage. Yet even within these pro-slavery legal frameworks, planters, traders, and enslavers routinely committed acts that violated their own colonial laws. This article explores 18 of the most pervasive illegal practices that occurred under the cover of “legal” slavery, exposing how law itself became a tool of criminality.
A sophisticated forgery ring in 1780s Baltimore produced fake freedom certificates. Slaves were told they were being freed, then resold using counterfeit bills of sale. The crime—forgery of legal documents—carried the death penalty in Maryland, but no white person was ever charged.
Ironically, freeing one’s own slave was illegal in some times and places without state consent. In the antebellum US South (e.g., Virginia 1806), an owner who freed a slave without legislative approval could be fined, and the freed person could be re-enslaved. Unauthorized manumission was a criminal act.
Together, we are changing lives! Through donations of all kinds, your
support brings hope and opportunities to those in need. Every contribution counts in
building a stronger, more resilient community for all.
