It probably predates Egypt and the Pharoes, but those Pyramids are a monumental symbol of the gilded age. Rome was built by the humans they shipped home from the conquests around the Mediterranean. Every maid was one,and they satisfied the needs of the housewife as well the special ones of the men. That was specially true of the slavehousemaids in the US south. The latter day traffic was only possible because of French intrigue. The trade created and sustained Nantes, Bordeaux,La Rochelle and Le Havre. Transshipment was to French Haiti, from where bodies were farmed out to the continent. Very complicit on the east coast of Africa were Omani/Zanzibar Swahili Arabs who were dependent on the financeoffered by Muslim and Hindu baniyas of Saurashtra and Cutch. I am inclined to believe the Ismaili cult of the Aga Chieftanderived it's seed money from the dhow winds. What survived of the few thousand flogged onto British shores : none did.
