It’s widely agreed upon that slavery prior to the transatlantic trade typically came with more rights and pathways to freedom and this is generally true globally. Many civilizations have stories of freed slaves becoming rulers or high tanking political officials.

The transatlantic trade sought to create a permanent underclass of slaves based on a global race based caste system based on how European powers perceived the world at the time. Essentially, if you had melanin, you were potentially a part of the slave / nonperson class.