>>520808188
>but the transatlantic slave trade was uniquely industrial,
Go tell that to the Egyptians who built their entire history off the backs of slaves, hell, the story of Moses literally goes over that as a religious focal point of slaughtering slaves constantly so they don't rise up, and other nations used slavery far more than the US ever did, especially with how young the US is compared to the old world. The US (and multiple nations in Europe) was one of the few nations to ever free another group of people that wasn't their own ethnicity. Same with the British Empire at it's closing and as it retreated, especially outlawing barbaric practices in their colonies, which doesn't absolve them completely of their own wrong-doings, but pretending colonialism was simply a net-negative on the locals is disingenuous.
>Claiming the West ended slavery is like bragging about putting out a fire you started lol
The irony is that the West was extremely late to the slavery party, and they then the US promptly began outlawing it less than 200 years later from the birth of the US, where it persisted in Africa and the Middle East well before and after the US ever existed. Black slaves did help to enrich the US mainly with cotton and tobacco, moreso cotton to European exports, but to pretend that was the only or largest thing that built America is disingenuous as well. The US had huge lumber reserves, other agriculture that wasn't worked by slaves, oil, and coal. And, on top of that, it was rich white elites, remember, 1.4% of the population owned slaves, pretty close to the mega-rich numbers and disproportionate wealth income today. As well as black slaves owners too. So it's not so cut and dry of a narrative of slaves solely built the US, they definitively helped in areas but you're pretending like the whole economy ran on cotton despite other industries and intercommerce existing.