After learning more about how the slave trade worked I see that every slave sent overseas had their lives literally saved.
Not being sold and sent to the New World meant sacrifice. Or an even worse death as a slave there or in Arab lands.
Ancestors of US blacks were saved from certain death by being sent here as slaves.
Ironic or maybe even another word fits. Not sure which one.
Uh, no.
The slave trade was not benign in intention or effects. Many slaves died in transport in slave ships under miserable conditions.
“I’m glad my ancestors got on that ship”! ~~~Muhammad Ali after visiting Africa.
Not every slave kept in Africa was killed in sacrifice. Most just toiled.
Not every African slave-dealing king kingdom practiced human sacrifice.
The life expectancy of a slave in a European run sugar plantation was 3 years. They were worked to death as in galley ships and salt mines.
Deaths on board a slave ship were ten percent on the low end, usually higher.