Certainly. Peasants in the British Empire were no better off than slaves, unable to own land and with no ability to advance themselves. There was a time in the Roman Empire when there were more slaves than citizens. As far back as ancient Greece a slave had no rights, even to preserve his/her own life. But America ended slavery (a legacy of the British Empire) and even fought a war over it, then sealed it forever in its Constitution, for which it gets no credit at all.
bttt - are the Barbary Slave trade/raids even mentioned anymore or has that been forgotten as inconvenient history?