I'm really confused by this idea so I figured this might be one of the best places to ask.

I grew up vaguely hearing about the Irish "slave" trade, my mom took classes on it in college, we /are/ Irish, that kind of thing. Whenever I bring it up, people tell me I'm confusing indentured servitude with slavery.

While I'm 100% aware that the treatment of African American people is horrific, I'm really just more trying to learn about my heritage. How true is it? Or is it one of those things that's more 50/50?