I never defended slavery. What I have defended is America from ignorant Euro trash anti-Americanism.
We didn't invent slavery. We fought a war to destroy it. Britain condemned it in others while still profiting from it, officially, more than 60 years after we wiped it out in our country.
We never ruled over colonies where we treated the natives as slaves. Britain and all of the other European powers did do precisely that and only ceased doing so.... wait, in some places they're still doing it. Witness the French in the Ivory Coast.
Gee, I guess Britain isn't so great after all. And your education system obviously leaves out the "painful bits" of history that might make the poor, sensitive, euro-weenies lose self esteem.
Slavery is evil. Where it was practiced, relatively briefly historically, in the US it was wiped out almost 150 years ago. The European powers, including Britain, still live off of fortunes made on the backs of slaves and they continued to officially tolerate participation in the slave trade by their people well into the last century.
Or haven't you read the rest of Kipling?