Why do you feel that it's not appropriate to compare slavery to the holocaust? Given your extensive reading then I'm really surprised you would think that the black experience of US slavery and the African slave trade in general was as you put it 'sucked but not genocide'. Who exactly are you to decide that?
Now this is good you've studied Civil War history but have you ever said what you just said to a black person's face? How would you feel if a black person belittled the Jewish holocaust and said what happened in the US slave trade was worse than the Jewish holocaust? I know how I react when some of my customers say crap like that, and it's NOT pretty. However, if you're not going to give the same respect to black Americans and their experiences in this country as well as the MILLIONS of slaves that DIED not survived BUT DIED then I have nothing further to say to you Alouette.
"However, if you're not going to give the same respect to black Americans and their experiences in this country"
How awful it would be to live in a society in which one couldn't even discuss whether the American slave trade was worse than the Holocaust, or vice versa.
No room for people who think that slavery was worse, and none for people who think the Holocaust was worse? We all must accept and obediently parrot some PC line that...that what? That they were both simultaneously the worst thing that ever happened in history, worse even than Stalin starving 20 million Ukranians? Or is it just that the question must never even be framed?
This has nothing to do with my personal feelings. This is a discussion of history. You can't compare slavery to the Holocaust except on an emotional level.
There is one significant difference which you seem to have overlooked. The issue of American slavery is completely in the past. There is no one alive today who experienced it. There is no one who wants to bring it back. Therefore I think it should be possible to study its different aspects, including the opinions of people who were in favor of it.
However there are still many people alive who have survived the Holocaust, and there are also many people who are determined to finish the job that Hitler started.