[marktwain]

Slavery was a step up in civilization.

Before the social machinery existed for slavery, captured enemy combatants were simply killed. In some cases, they were eaten.

Slavery was near universal across the world by the 1600. Much of Christendom was an exception. Christian priests with the conquistadors ruled American Indians should not be enslaved, unless they were captured in battle.

Muslims were big exporters of slavery and the idea of slavery. Many of the conquistadors' ideas about slavery came from the Muslims, who they had recently driven out of Spain.

[SauronOfMordor]

During the Middle Ages, serfs were effectively slaves to a degree.

In Europe, the defining characteristics of the nobility were the right to be armed, the right to own property, and the right to defend yourself and what was yours with your own arms.

The Constitution made every citizen a nobleman.

[AndyTheBear]

Yes, Western Culture and Christianity were the engines that doomed slavery. All the more reason to not let Progressives trick us into defending any part of slavery.