I believe it. To them, we were no different from goats, cows, pigs etc. Even the 'kind' slavers would be kind to a human being as if they were kind to their favorite horse. They would say stuff like "this is good breeding stock" when talking about people.
I believe white people still haven't gotten over the fact that we were once legally considered less than human. If someone told a farmer that all of a sudden their cows have the same rights as they do, their reaction would be "thats ridiculous. You can never convince me that that animal is equal to me" they still refuse to see us as human beings