Slavery was nearly always a thing done by almost all cultures since ancient times. (Excluding Persia) Historians estimate that as much as 1/3 of people living in antiquity were enslaved and not just Africans, but prisoners of war or just random families. In fact after taking over a town, it was almost a certainty that they would capture every man woman and child and sell them all. This slave practice consisted t the throughout the Middle Ages and until the American civil war