The slave trade from Africa to the Americas was on a gigantic scale involving many millions of captives . Surely it was the scale of the barbarity which distinguished it from other slave societies. And it was the slave trade and the use of slave labour in the West Indies and the Americas which fuelled the rise of capitalism .As Marx said capitalism was born in blood and gore.
The descendents of slaves do not only need an apology.... the countries of the so called Third World need to have their state debts written off as I don't see why slum dwellers and the rural poor should have to pay with their sweat and labour for the foolish lending policies of western bankers and the corruption of local political leaders and thuggish dictators.
ifor