Muslims: explain the whole slave thing?

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First of all, get your head out of american slavery. I'm american too, born here...learned what you learned. Slavery through most of history, across the world wasn't racist....was as "brutal" as we were taught....etc.
Did you see Amistad? IT was big when i was growing up, based on a true story...a little innaccurate, but basically africans were captured to be sold as slaves...they mutinied....were in prison in america...argued they weren't slaves, so they couldn't be sold as slaves, and what they did was in defense.....they won the case and were set free.
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Pre columbus native americans had slaves...for instance. Every culture in the world did...it was primarily due to prisons of war...some cases, debtors.
So prisoners of war....what do you do?
Kill them?...they did surrender...saved you the hassle of them fighting to the death.
Set them free.....welll they did just try to kill you, your friends, your family....that doesn't sound fair...also they could regroup and attack again.
Imprison them?...so not only feed, clothe, shelter... your own family, but this guy that just tried to kill everyone you know???
Slavery was the default. Its what made sense. Most of history, all nations...race was never an issue.
Back to america, african slaves brought to america and sold into slavery, were prisoners of war in african conflicts....black africans sold them to the europeans.....

Islam set rules about how to deal with it.
You had to treat them well, cruelty was forbidden.
If they want freedom, you have to come to an arrangement....so lets say you bought them for $500...lets say they work $5 / day, but costs $3 / day (food, clothes)....so that's $2 / day net. You could say..alright, well 1 year i'll let you go free...just an example...i know that comes out to more than $500...but yeah

Now, freeing slaves were highly encouraged, it was a great blessing to do so. Its one of the applicable things you can donate zakat towards. It was required as compensation in certain situations. Muhammad and his companions went out of their way to purchase and free slaves....

Restrictions were set, like you couldn't castrate a slave, which was a common practice. Some people bought slaves and whored them out....forbidden.

Slaves were given a lot of rights...could marry or divorce....get educated.....they could take their master to court....If a master beat his slave for instance, he was ordered to set him free.

Islam deals with the real world and slavery was everywhere. Like a murderer is sentenced to death, but the family of the victim can opt to forgive him instead. Its recommended to forgive, but a violent crime was committed and legal response was created. Theft is the same...large items (not some teen stealing dvds from walmart)...can result in your hand being amputated, but the victim can forgive.
Slavery is the same. SO it didn't flat out abolish it, but changed its nature. The recommendation is the free them, but there is the reality.

Sorta done, but also have to consider the economic impact. Society was based on slavery....what happened to the south when slavery was suddenly abolished???? Their economy collapsed and parts of it still never recovered. A phased out approach would've worked better. Give people ten years to set their slaves free.