Next time someone tells you the simple story of slavery, suggest that they read this article by myth-buster Edward Campbell. The title: “The West Didn’t Invent Slavery: But It Fought to End It: Abolition and the birth of moral restraint.”  Here’s an excerpt:

Slavery was the norm for over 5,000 years. Abolition was the rupture.

In this essay, I challenge the comforting myth that history bends naturally toward justice. Instead, I trace the global story of slavery and argue that the real anomaly wasn’t oppression—it was restraint. The West didn’t invent slavery, but parts of it did something almost no civilization had done before: use power to end it.

Featuring the West Africa Squadron, the Haitian Revolution, and moral crusaders from Wilberforce to Tubman—this is a story about conscience, power, and the rare moments when they align.

Slavery is as old as civilization—dating back over 5,000 years. It was present in the earliest empires of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. For millennia, it was accepted as natural, necessary—even sacred. Every society practiced it; few questioned it. From pharaohs to emperors, slavery was a pillar of power.

Then—within barely a century—it virtually vanished from the earth.
This essay is about the exception that proved the rule.

Slavery was the norm. Abolition was the rupture.