I don't think it hurts my feelings but, was the Atlantic slave trade really worse than the trans-Sahara slave trade? Consider these figures: the trans-Atlantic slave trade began around 1500 and lasted until the end of our Civil War. 15 million Africans were taken in it. 4 million died en route to the Americas. The trans-Sahara slave trade began in the seventh century and may still be going on under the law's radar. 120 million+ Africans were taken in this slave trade and only 18 million ever reached the markets of Fez, Cairo and, yes, Mecca too. That means that over 100 million may have perished in the desert over fourteen centuries.

Will you tell us these people were better off dead?

The descendants of those taken across the Atlantic now number over 100 million. Where are the descendants of those taken across the Sahara?

Incidentally, the trans-Atlantic slave trade began, at least in part, as a subdivision of the trans-Sahara trade.