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There were eras where slavery had little to do with race (see: the Roman Republic and Empire) but the history of slavery in the last half-millennium had everything to do with race; it is the edifice on which white supremacy was built.

You're not "controversial" for skipping over the blindingly obvious, but we're not allowed to insult people on this forum, so feh!

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> but the history of slavery in the last half-millennium had everything to do with race;

Slaves in Russian Empire were freed a few years earlier than slaves in the USA. There were roughly 5 times more slaves in Russia than in USA, and I can pretty confidently say that zero of them were black. Even if you add ~2 million black slaves from Brazil, the number of black slaves would be dwarfed by the white slave population from Russia.

Based on this calculation, I don't think that your thesis about the history of slavery in the last 500 years holds well.

There was also the Barbary Slave Trade, which lasted until the early 19th Century and during which over a million Europeans were removed from Europe during raids and enslaved in North Africa. Not to mention slavery in Africa itself, which goes from pre-history to today. The Atlantic Slave Trade is a stain on the history of the West, but it is by no means unique.

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