The only reason the victorious tribe did not kill them is they could get money and accomplish the same thing. Those they defeated would never be seen again. So maybe slavery saved tens of thousands of lives.
While probably true, when the tribes found out they could get money for them, they may have started capturing and selling people they wouldn’t have normally went after.
One could pose the question, if he hadn’t been captured and survived only to be captured after the British stopped the slavers for good, would he have been better off? Captured after that point he would have been dead, or maybe his side would have won and the next tribe would lose their warriors.
Slavery was a product of the lawless culture then in Africa all based on tribal wars and their results. It is still there.
Well, to be fair, those they didn’t kill of, they sold. They were killing a bunch and then after victory, sold off those they didnt keep for ther own slaves or sex concubines.