About the AU Keptverse
Assume the What We Keep FAQ. Only in this AU, the TV series and the films are real.

As poisontaster says:

...we don't want to get overly detailed to a point where the canonical 'rules' of the system become oppressive to free storytelling. We want there to be enough room for people to have fun in this universe. And sometimes that means not parsing things out too finely. Next, a word on the nuts and bolts. This is an open universe. That means anyone is able to write in it, talk about it, create for it, without having to get prior permission. Stories do not have to be canon compliant; it's up to you, as creator, how close you want to stick to the 'rules' of the universe. On the other hand, that obviously means that not everything will be considered universe-canonical. It's up to you how much you want to incorporate other people's ideas and creations.

In my universe, I have characters from Buffy, the X-Files, Highlander, and The Professionals, as well as The Fugitive, so in my universe the events of these series/films are part of the canonical background. Other writers are not bound by this.

Further, I think it's clear (though not specified in the FAQ) that in the Keptverse, the range of normal human sexual orientation is accepted as normal. I presume from that, that same-sex marriage is legal and accepted.

The basics are, though:

The USNA is made up of Canada, the USA, and Mexico. It is formally ruled in much the same way as the US is today: any citizen can vote (slaves and minors and immigrants not being citizens, obviously) and there is the judiciary, Congress, and the President. There is also Commerce, and there is an effective system of aristocracy, the Lords and Ladies.

Slave ownership is mandatory above a threshold income: number of slaves a person must own is based on their level of income and limited only by the size of their home. Not owning a slave, if you are above that threshold income level, is penalized by a fine: Commerce has access to the IRS records. A person may escape being required to buy a slave/be fined if they can show they have no space in their home in which to house one, and cannot afford to move to a larger home, but they can assume that Commerce will continue to run regular investigations for so long as the IRS shows their income above the mandatory level.

About slavery

Manumission is not legal. Once a person is a slave, they are a slave for life.

There is debt slavery. Parents can sell their minor children. Adults can sell themselves into slavery to pay their debt. Adults can be claimed by the financial institution to which they owe money, and sold as slaves: their minor children will be taken into care. Children under the age of 5 are not legally supposed to be separated from their parents. Debt slaves receive training before they are sold.

There is birth slavery: a child born to a slave mother is a slave from birth. Children under the age of 5 are not legally supposed to be separated from their parents. The deliberate breeding of slaves is forbidden by law, however.

There is convict slavery. The legal penalties for some crimes include being sentenced to slavery. Convict slaves wear a visually-identifiable collar. Debt slaves may be bought by anyone, but purchase of convict slaves is limited - at the very least, I would guess, you have to be able to satisfy Commerce that your convict slave will never be able to escape. Some convict slaves are on Final contracts, though some may not be.

Slaves are freeze-branded (from piratelf's livejournal):

According to the AKB 'verse slaves are freeze branded. It isn't said what with. I feel it would be something small and universally acknowledged. Such as a particular design that has come to designate slave. I'm thinking an S that resembles a figure kneeling. This is what a freeze brand looks like on human skin.

Final contracts and other legal rights

Unless a slave is on a Final contract, it's against the law to deliberately bring about their death. Accidental killing of a slave not on a Final contract is penalized by a fine from Commerce, as, probably, is permanent damage, deliberate or accidental, that comes about not from the ordinary working conditions of slavery but from actions on the part of the owner. (If you buy slaves for purposes of working in a coal mine, some of them are going to die every year: however, it would still be illegal for the coal mine owner to hit one of his miners with a pick axe until the slave died.)

An adult selling themselves into slavery to clear a debt can choose to be sold on a Final contract: this may be the only option open to older people or disabled people without special skills. A slave who commits a crime can be sentenced by Commerce to a Final contract. A person sentenced by a court to convict slavery can be sentenced to a Final contract. A slave on a Final contract can legally be killed. In general, private individuals are not allowed to own slaves on Final contracts: an institution must apply for a licence to buy slaves on Final contracts, and show a need, generally supposed to be "in the public interest". The two largest buyers of slaves on Final contracts are the public arenas in every large city where televised games are "played" for a live audience, and medical experimentation - hospitals, pharmaceutical companies.

A female slave may not be made pregnant against her will: a male slave may not be used to make a woman pregnant against his will: slave owners are not allowed to deliberately breed slave children for work or for sale. Perhaps for this reason, it appears to be more common than not for people to have same-gendered bodyslaves - slaves bought for the purpose of having sex with their owners and being publicly decorative.

Slaves are not allowed to marry: a free person who is married is automatically divorced if their spouse becomes a slave.


Commerce and the USNA government/economy

All slaves are legally the property of Commerce, a powerful and secretive department in the USNA government. Commerce owns all slaves - debt, birthed, and convicts - and governs their use, protects their rights, and controls their sale. Private individuals, companies, and other government institutions own the contracts for slaves: the slaves themselves belong to Commerce.

Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution still applies: "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."

The vast majority of slaves in the USNA belong to commercial companies who use them in factories, mines, farms, etc: the USNA economy is fundamentally dependent on slave labour, which is completely under the control of Commerce and, in effect, of the 1% of the population who own the contracts of 78% of the slaves. (Statistics are of course made up, but are based roughly on proportionate ownership of wealth in the modern-day US.) I am presuming that Lords and Ladies are those in that top 1%.)

Representation and direct taxation of any state in the USNA is dependent not only on the number of free people living in the state, but on 3/5ths of the number of any slaves.


The rest of the world

The USNA closed its borders some decades ago. It is possible to immigrate to the USNA if you have a job offer and you apply to become a citizen, but it is difficult for any citizen to leave the USNA and illegal for a citizen to take slaves out of the USNA.

Many nations have reciprocally closed their borders to USNA citizens. The only two countries with land borders on the USNA, Belize and Guatemala, have a reciprocal agreement with the USNA that citizens without valid exit visas on their passports will be returned to their state of origin, and legislation mandating the return of escaped slaves to their lawful owner. Honduras and El Salvador have similar laws. Shortly after the USNA closed its borders, Nicaragua was the first nation outside the USNA to explicitly free all slaves within its borders and to declare that any slave that entered Nicaragua became free on arrival: the United Kingdom of Great Britain passed similiar legislation in the same year, but there it did not become law for 12 months, allowing slave-owners time to leave the UK with their property.

I just made the last paragraph up, of course. But it makes sense that some nations - especially those under the economic aegis of the USNA - would go along with USNA laws about slavery, while others would not. The key thing is: It's very damn difficult for a slave in the USNA to get out of the USNA, and a slave in the USNA is not legally allowed to be freed.