When you started this piece mentioning the initiation of slave trading on American soil, I was reminded of the book I'm reading (Sapiens). I'm currently in the section that predates this a little bit, but it's covering the history of the European conquerers through Central America...one of the more profound facts I made note of is how this idea that you can come to a foreign, unknown (to you) land and "claim" it as your own for your king, is uniquely European. No other empire or culture of the time made a significant effort to interact with, let along conquer, their neighboring people. It feels like the origins of cultural appropriation...you can see a tradition, food, word, piece of clothing, etc. from another culture and "claim" it as your own with no regard to how it's taken out of context to benefit you and harm someone else. Maybe I'm not connecting the dots entirely but gives me much to think about.