It is as though slavery is the beginning and the end of African-American history when it is actually a small part of a larger story. I contend that African-American history starts on the continent of the Tivs, Mandingos, Fulani Hausa, etc., where they were captured. Our way of teaching doesn't address the fact that African peoples were originally free, had known freedom and then lost it. We are first introduced to them as enslaved persons living with the legacy of that experience and not moving toward that original autonomous or free state of their ancestors. Historically, people have sold their own people.
Human history is replete with peoples selling one another.
When Africans got involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade with the Europeans, particularly with the British in the American colonies, the obvious color not cultural difference, made the difference. This made it easy to reduce the number of indentured servants, both black and white, who would eventually be set free with land, tools, livestock, and clothing for their seven years of servitude. There was concern about the colonies and later the fledgling country becoming a welfare state. Even in post-Civil War times, this perception of blacks as inferior and less than human created huge injustices, fear and mistrust. Even if the white family had been idle, they believed they were superior to the blacks, so they felt justified to burn black homes, run families out of town, even lynch family members.