> I suspect slave holding was in existance longer and broader geographicaly than in the USA. As a matter of fact it was. I don't see your point. Slavemasters like to have slaves do the work. In the American South, the owners believed that they were doing the slaves a favor. If they weren't slaves, they'd be non-Christian heathens in Africa at the mercy of lions and hyenas, living the lives of primitives. Slavery was said to be better: it taught them Christian values (including the virtues of work) and it protected them from wild nature. Did other slave-holding societies think that way? Undoubtedly some did: Brazil, for example.
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