Painter Question

I can honestly say I am learning more and more about the things I thought I already knew about African American history and one thing in particular is how slavery was common before the slave trade and wasn't racial before the seventeenth century which why I have come to the conclusion I have. I believe the larger part was economics but as time progressed it became a racial thing. Painter speaks on slavery being a common practice in Africa as well as in Europe and Asia. The difference is it was for captives of war but it was not racial and offspring were not automatically slaves and this is what makes me think the Atlantic slave trade was in part racial. The way slaves were mistreated, abused, and tortured tells me it was about race. If it were purely economics why the ill-treatment? The numbers show that the black population between 1620 and 1700 grossed enormously from 60 to almost 28000 and that tells me they wanted more workers to produce more and in turn profit more thus making it economical. Painter describes it as a"massive commericial undertaking" after the slave trade.