We didn’t have slavery laws, so you couldn’t have “official slavery”. They used their process for indentured servants.
But as the participants were not willing, nor had they consented, or entered contracts, nor were they criminals, their servanthood was in fact slavery.
Slavery does not have to be a permanent thing to be slavery; that someone freed their slaves after a period of time does not make them less slaves.
The original question was: Is Northam right to call theost first arrivals “indentured servants. Yes, he was. None of the but-he-should-have-saids matter.That does not at all detract from his demonstrated disdain for Negroes and his support for infanticide. But the claim that he lied because he said something that was true but inappropriate should not be in our arguments and claims. We could say that he was technically correct but substantially misleading but claiming he lied is bogus.
We had private property rules which included property in humans. Indentured servants were not “property” though holders of the indentures had rights in the indenture. It is a fine distinction but it is a distinction. Northam was not lying.