diff --git a/Lib/email/base64mime.py b/Lib/email/base64mime.py
index 6cbfdf6..f3bbac1 100644
--- a/Lib/email/base64mime.py
+++ b/Lib/email/base64mime.py
@@ -74,12 +74,12 @@
 
 
 def body_encode(s, maxlinelen=76, eol=NL):
-    """Encode a string with base64.
+    r"""Encode a string with base64.
 
     Each line will be wrapped at, at most, maxlinelen characters (defaults to
     76 characters).
 
-    Each line of encoded text will end with eol, which defaults to "\\n".  Set
+    Each line of encoded text will end with eol, which defaults to "\n".  Set
     this to "\r\n" if you will be using the result of this function directly
     in an email.
     """
diff --git a/Lib/email/message.py b/Lib/email/message.py
index 27a577d..520d63d 100644
--- a/Lib/email/message.py
+++ b/Lib/email/message.py
@@ -198,17 +198,19 @@
             return None
         cte = self.get('content-transfer-encoding', '').lower()
         if cte == 'quoted-printable':
+            if isinstance(payload, str):
+                payload = payload.encode('ascii')
             return utils._qdecode(payload)
         elif cte == 'base64':
             try:
                 if isinstance(payload, str):
-                    payload = payload.encode('raw-unicode-escape')
+                    payload = payload.encode('ascii')
                 return base64.b64decode(payload)
             except binascii.Error:
                 # Incorrect padding
                 pass
         elif cte in ('x-uuencode', 'uuencode', 'uue', 'x-uue'):
-            in_file = BytesIO(payload.encode('raw-unicode-escape'))
+            in_file = BytesIO(payload.encode('ascii'))
             out_file = BytesIO()
             try:
                 uu.decode(in_file, out_file, quiet=True)