Political Memes

It has existed in other societies (without the same level of institutionalization or rigidity) but slavery elsewhere generally 1) Was not strictly race based and 2) had legally recognized pathways out of captivity. Generally slavery was tied to a debt that needed to be repaid or captivity during war and rather than an inherited bonded status. There are numerous stories of slaves being freed and rising to positions of prominence within society in other cultures. European enslavers genuinely believed that nonwhite, particularly black people, did not have a soul / were not fully human, which led to this level of dehumanization. When it comes to scale, impact and just profound inhumanity the European Atlantic slave trade is in a class of its own.

Ottoman slave law did not adopt a comparable hereditary rule. Ottoman jurisprudence treated slavery as a personal condition that could be inherited from either parent, but the practice varied regionally and often depended on the master’s discretion. Children of enslaved mothers could be freed, sold, or retained at the owner’s pleasure, and manumission was relatively common. Moreover, the Ottoman slave market relied heavily on the capture and purchase of individuals rather than on large‑scale, plantation‑driven reproduction; the economy did not depend on a permanent, generational slave workforce.

I would disagree that it was common in most other societies with slavery. Even in those where it was used, it was not instituted as a "generational slave workforce" intended to power a revenue engine like the plantation economies (while giving nothing back to the people/slaves that made that wealth possible).