Colonialism or no colonialism, I fear that the powerful nations of the day would still have found Africa a profitable source for the slave trade. It's sickening to think of, but there were prosperous nations that needed the manpower (and woman power, and maybe even childpower?) and even without engaging in a colonial relationship, those powers would have traded in human flesh to meet their labor force requirements. We forget how very recent abolition is in history. Slavery has been a fact of human civilization for many thousands of years.
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