Slavery has at many times, in many civilizations, been the norm. The Greeks, who had an admirable democracy, had slaves. Slavery per se, IMO, is not wrong- we just have a cultural abhorrence to it, which is fine with me. But the fact that our ancestors, living in a time when slavery was an accepted norm, owned slaves has nothing to do with our "Karma". After all slave capture was a big business among many tribes in Africa. They were capturing each other for slavery well before the white slave traders (starting with the dutch?) made it big business in America- after all the Greeks, Romans, Carthiginians, etc, had black slaves- it wasn't a new thing invented by white colonists. And don't forget the role of the Arab slave traders. Everyone has someone in their history who has had a hand in slavery (the American Indians captured each other for slavery- women and children anyway, and lets not forget the Incas and Aztecs). Slaves are just REALLY handy in pre-industrial societies. We don't need them anymore so it is easy to be emotional and terribly shocked about the whole thing but it is a facile position.
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