I'm not an apologist for it, I don't think there is anything to apologize for.
I condemn those who abused slaves, just as I would one who abused children or animals.
I probably have slightly less serious condemnation for those who captured and traded in slaves.
I have no problem with someone who inherited a large farm and number of slaves to tend it to make them wealth.
I would too. And so would you had you been born into it. I know you can't or won't admit that, and i believe that you would have freed your slaves if you, as you are now, were sucked back into time and made the heir of a plantation, I think you would refuse it, even if you knew you wouldn't be coming back to 2014.
But I don't condemn someone for participating in a legal and socially acceptable behavior. Even if it is offensive to our modern notions.
Rape a slave child, beat them because it's Tuesday, yeah that's wrong.
Inherit them, or hell even go buy them and use them for economic or personal gain, I'm good with that.