American chattel slavery was in affect in the 1850's, and ever since, it has impacted every life - some with privilege and generational wealth, some with disenfranchisement and generational debt. From 1400s to present day, enslavement of African people and their descendants in the Americas and abroad, have had deep and far-reaching "relevance", right down to this minute. It's perpetual because evil doesn't die. It just changes form.