By way of a p.s. to this discussion: If you read Lovejoy or other works that discuss the Islamic trade in slaves from Africa to the Middle East, you may be--as I was--amazed to learn the huge numbers that were involved. Millions of Africans were caught up in this trade, though always many fewer than in the Atlantic trade (and it's worth mentioning that in the Atlantic trade, North America was a minor, peripheral destination: the vast majority of slaves went to the Caribbean and, later, to Brazil). The critical distinction between the Islamic/East African and Atlantic trades, however, from the standpoint of historical consequences, is that the children of African slaves in the Middle East, and even some of the slaves themselves, were fully incorporated into society. Such incorporation has been the norm in most slaveholding societies throughout history. It is the race-based, perpetually heritable dimension of Atlantic slavery that sets it apart historically from other slave systems and determined its role in New World societies. --Jurretta