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this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2026
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This is monstrous, but the first Europeans going to Western Africa to enslave people. It must have been clumsy, awkward, brutal, violent, and coercive. In short, one of humanity's most callous, idiotic moves.
If I could interact (using modern tech), I'd sink every one of those ships with mines and drones. I'd monitor boats from space. I'd send a few of the slavers back knowing — and telling — only that enslavement will destroy them and Africa is not theirs to exploit.
The rest who survive would be taken care of, taught the strengths of diversity, other cultures, and West African ways of living. They would be the welcome wagon for any Europeans to return. Their tasks: stave off invasion, disrupt slaving activity, open negotiations with Europe. Undo the scourge of that institution and the attendant supremacy that followed.
Then, I'd set the same protections for the Americas. Unfortunately, Asia is accessible over land and contact predates my selected moment.
IDGAF if — as consequence — it sets human development back by 400 years of labour, resource exploitation, and "progress". It's worth it.
Maybe you already know it but the biggest slave traders were from Africa. They hunted their enemies, slaved then and sold them.
A question, then. To whom were enslaved persons being sold? Within Africa, it was expensive in terms of time and resources. No plantations, no national- or international-scale socioeconomic reinforcing the institution.
That, my friend, was not on an industrial scale until the Europeans created a transnational market for it.
Yes, slavery is a part of many histories. Prisoners of conflicts, poverty, inter-family disputes, etc. led to people being enslaved. It was also normal, to the point of socially reinforced, to free slaves. This was known as manumission.
The transatlantic trafficking in humans, and the perpetual enslavement of their descendents was on a scale unlike anything before. They were the "biggest" slave traders only if/when you neglect all the descendents born into bondage. That is a virtually unique stain on human history.
Further, in virtually every society on earth, it was not "race-based" bondage. It was debt-bondage or honour-bondage as an alternative to being killed in battle. There was a path to freedom, and a comparatively short one compared to institutionalized slavery.