What lay behind the horrors of the slave trade?

well there was plenty that laid behind the slave trade, the largest thing would have been profit. what is rarely emphasized on the topic of the slave trade is that it was the africans that actually were the largest suppliers of slaves. they would raid the smaller tribes and villages and take captives to be sold on the slave markets. generally the instigators were from the stronger tribes and stood to gain money from their selling their own countrymen and women. the europeans and the american colonies created the demand and the africans took care of the supply. sure there was the occasional white european or middle eastern trader that would raid villages for slaves - but the bulk of it was perpetrated by africans. what i would note here is that white americans or even white europeans did not invent the slave trade, slavery had been more or less a way of life in every culture most likely dating back to the cro mag society.

so to answer the question i would say GREED, and BETRAYAL, and to a degree- LAZINESS were behind the horrors of the slave trade.

the actual horrors themselves would have been the abductions, the deaths, crossing the ocean to another land, being separated from your family, being dehumanized in the markets, being treated worse than livestock, punishments of not behaving and doing what you were told, and having no rights at all- going from being free to being someone elses property.

Behind it? Isn’t the slave trade itself bad enough?

Thank you this was really helpful :D