The Chinese were enslaving people from the beginning of recorded history---as were the Egyptians.
As an interesting slant on the entire issue of slavery---intertribal slavery was common all over Africa long before the white man showed up ---in fact the primary source of the "goods" for the white slave traders was from Africans that would capture the "candidates" and bring them to the ports.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis