I know, public schools donāt teach real history, so I donāt blame you for believing what you do, but the truth is slavery was an institution that existed across all civilizations for all of human history. It was the norm until the 19th century, when white Christians in the United Kingdom and the United States of America declared slavery immoral, and waged a campaign to root it out of existence. A campaign that was largely successful, other than in places like the Middle East & Africa, where they still practice slavery today.