[telltruth]

I don't have proof but I think around 15th and 16th centuries, slavery wasn't considered as abhorrent crime by most of the populations. It was just the way of life and no one blinked twice when looking at slave children laboring away their lives. For example, if you failed to pay your debt in many culturally sophisticated places, you get to become slave for rest of your life and it was considered perfectly acceptable that slavery gets inherited by your offspring. There were even laws that slaves can buy off their freedom if they somehow save enough over time to pay off the debt. During Roman times, it was expected that winners in the war will take surviving looser in their wars as slaves, including their family. The Roman laws maintained elaborate registration system for slaves and there were stiff penalties for slaves running off. Salves were huge part of economy (and most of them perhaps weren't Africans). There were few powerful at the top needed massive cheap labor to maintain their large estates and build elaborate structures that are mind boggling to even today's generations. Somewhere along the history, freedom and compassion for the common man suddenly became important and the concept of slavery become repulsive. So it would be wrong to look at people in that time with how we feel about slavery now. I highly doubt the African tribes and even white traders looked at slavery the way we look at it now.