This piece presents limited facts about "numerous" (really?) African people owning white slaves, freed slaves, etc.  It really needs more substance than these highly interpretive comments about numbers.   What exactly is "numerous," etc., and compared to how many millions of slaves who didn't own white people, but were instead treated with a brutality for which we would now imprison someone for a very, very long time?

So, capitalism made slavery a huge effort that was an international trade.   How, exactly, is that illuminating?   Water is wet, too.

We won't unlearn bigotry by talking about how discoveries of crops "changed" slavery.   People changed slavery.  People are the active agents, not "discoveries."