"The peculiar institution of chattel slavery in America was fueled by the kidnapping and importation of Africans to the United States. Aside from the violation of human rights and civil atrocities akin to modern-day war crimes, slavery's victims were robbed of all wealth and worldly possessions, inheritances, and real estate. African-Americans have lost literally millennia of acquired family fortune and social standing earned by countless generations of civilized existence in Africa. It is the economic disenfranchisement and continued social and economic oppression of African-American descendants of slaves that has had the most lasting effect."

http://www.nilevalley.net/history/chattle_slavery.html

>it depends on circumstances, and whether
>you are the enslaver or
>the enslaved.

Nah, it's wrong and justfying it jusr makes it worse, no matter what the role was.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own"
--Paulo Coelho, "The Alchemist"

"Know thyself"

"Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you". So we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
-- Hebrews 13:5,6

"There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path"
--Morpheus in "The Matrix" (and a Buddhist philosophy)

"It's our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"- Dumbledore to Harry Potter "Chamber of Secrets"