Irish serfdom under the English squirearchy was unfree, coerced and explotative. People fled that by selling themselves.
I don't think we need to minimise that. It wssnt chattel slavery, people were not directly bought as commodities, they were not packed like tetris blocks on slave ships. Serfdom is still a form of slavery, as is indentured servitude.

Edit: It isn't laundering racism to point out that things that arent chattel slavery can still be slavery. It is absolutely some kind of racism adjacent conspiracy to invent a theory of Jewish domination of an Irish slave trade. But pointing out that serfdom is unfree isnt the same thing.

For sure, it's only that chattel slavery is not the only kind of slavery. Limiting the definition of slavery to such a narrow image would reject a lot of very real slavery. The Ottomans didn't keep chattel slaves but they were certainly slavers.

OOP was definitely laundering racism though 100%

Edit: I think it is seriously worth noting that Bacon's rebellion was specifically an alliance of white indentured servents and african slaves against the slave owning class. Just don't pay attention to the colonial anti-indigenous motivations for that revolt though.

Edit 2: maybe not on that last bit

Adding to this, indentured servants still had some rights (though these were often disregarded as the people who violated those rights were often the ones who would enforce them). Examples:

• Indentured servants were allowed to read. Slaves were not. Teaching black slaves how to read itself was a crime punishable by imprisonment and/or lashings.
• Indentured servants were still allowed to own property. They often sold as much as they could, however, to pay off their debt. Slaves owned nothing. Even their clothes were property of the master. Slaves were not allowed to buy or sell things for themselves.
• If you killed or seriously harmed an indentured servant, you could be charged with a crime. Some contracts had limits as to what types of punishments could be dealt to the indentured. Slaves could be murdered,removedd, and tortured with impunity.

Having an impossible sum of money held over you with your wages garnished under the threat of imprisonment or abuse was awful. But it still isn't as bad as some Epstein frat boys deciding they're going to use you for skeet shooting. Or sending your children to another plantation in another state where you will never see them again.

That and they also try to pin it on Jews when it was Irish people taking whatever deal they could get to get out of then totally occupied Ireland. It wasn't Jews it was anyone with a ship that would take you to the "new world" with the fewest questions asked.

This is what I think every time someone uses "wage slave." It's a term to retire.