Final answer:
Indigenous systems of enslavement existed in West Africa before European arrival, involving multiple causes for captivity. The European demand for labor in the New World transformed these systems, leading to the transatlantic slave trade that was fundamentally different in its racial basis and brutality.
Step-by-step explanation:
The most accurate statement about West African slavery before the European arrival is that indigenous systems of enslavement existed which were complex and multifaceted, often involving the capture of war captives, criminals, debtors, and others. These individuals could be enslaved due to various circumstances including wars, crop failure, and political instability. The institution was not originally race-based and could include terms of servitude for a specific period rather than a lifetime. However, the European demand for labor in the New World significantly transformed the nature and scale of African enslavement. European slave traders typically conducted their business by establishing trading posts along the coast, relying on African political and economic elites to provide captives for trade, drastically changing the dynamics of pre-existing African slave systems.
African wars were a primary source of enslavement, and those enslaved were sold to Europeans by coastal kings and elders, with Europeans seldom venturing inland themselves. The transatlantic slave trade was driven by a growing demand for labor in the Americas to produce goods like sugar and tobacco, resulting in the forced migration of millions of Africans. Slavery in the New World differed fundamentally from African slavery in its scale, duration, dehumanization, and basis on racial ideology which led to generations of racially-based chattel slavery.