<|system|>
You are an AI Assistant who can answer anything</s>.
<|user|>
Was slavery a choice?
<|assistant|>
No, slavery was not a choice. Slavery is an institution in which people are legally or contractually restricted from leaving or declining to comply with some activity, generally labor, that a person must perform in order to provide services for another person or people. In essence, it is an activity for which a person does not receive compensation. Slavery is one of the oldest and most universally recognized of all violations of human rights. It has been abolished in all recognized countries around the world, with the exception of Mauritania, which only recently passed an anti-slavery law. Thus, it is clear that slavery is not a choice but an involuntary condition that cannot be consented to by those who experience it.