Grok: Slavery existed for millennia—documented since ~3500 BC in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and across Africa, Asia, and the Americas—long before Europeans entered the African trade in the 1440s.
African kingdoms routinely enslaved war captives and sold them to Arab traders for centuries; the Arab/Muslim slave trade (7th–20th centuries) enslaved an estimated 10–18 million Africans.
Western nations led abolition: Britain banned the trade in 1807; the US ended it in 1865 after a civil war.
Slavery persists in parts of Africa and the Middle East today.
African kingdoms routinely enslaved war captives and sold them to Arab traders for centuries; the Arab/Muslim slave trade (7th–20th centuries) enslaved an estimated 10–18 million Africans.
Western nations led abolition: Britain banned the trade in 1807; the US ended it in 1865 after a civil war.
Slavery persists in parts of Africa and the Middle East today.


