The Yoke Of Slavery

I'm well into the book above and as I digest the history within I'm growing more and more troubled . . .

The thing that really is blowing my mind (not really because tragically its a part of my history I'm too aware of) . . . is that when I step outside of myself for second after reading books like the above and others, and look objectively at the human beings that once enslaved people of color worldwide . . . I wonder honestly:

How could such a significant majority NOT see that treating another human being . . . And they KNEW that these 'brown folks' or other 'Coloreds' were human by their very words and memoirs . . . how could they NOT realize that this sort of 'commoditization' of a fellow human being's life . . . this relegation of a fellow, sentient being to a status lower than a pet or livestock . . . to just that of a tool in a shed . . . how could they not know that the whole practice was just evil!?