Wanna hear a funny story? Read about the history of German involvement in slavery and their African colonies. tl;dr When the Germans went to Africa circa 1700s-1800s they outlawed slavery in their colonies. This threw the native African society into total disarray and they protested and rioted in favor of slavery! So Germany had to change it's laws to allow slave ownership among blacks but it was still illegal for Germans to own them. This lasted until the African colonies were abandoned by Germany.