Why did slavery last so long?

Why did slavery last so long? Its textile manufacturers and consumers constituted a seemingly insatiable market for the products of slave labor, and its government committed itself to a system of free trade. Together, these two great forces of capitalist development created powerful incentives to keep alive the commerce in enslaved Africans.

Its textile manufacturers and consumers constituted a seemingly insatiable market for the products of slave labor, and its government committed itself to a system of free trade. Together, these two great forces of capitalist development created powerful incentives to keep alive the commerce in enslaved Africans.