Today most of the stuff you bring home from the market was either made with slave work, or with machine work. The latter is not unlikely to have even worse impact on human lives on a great scale.
I think development of technology was often motivated by finding means of freeing slaves from atrocious work to give them dignity; if a machine could be built doing the same, that allowed some slaves to escape. Ultimately, this showdown can be seen in our field where many are motivated by similar principles whereas others still want to keep the control of others, warping the rules to their benefit.