How did we live in Goshen in our own houses while still being slaves?

Question

Bereshit 47:27 states that the Israelites (or Hebrews) settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. It also say they got them possessions therein. From 45:10 it seems they also had their own flock.

From different verses like Shemot 8:22 we know the people still lived in this region at the time of the Exodus.

Verse 1:14 suggests that they were working in construction because they had to work hard/severe through working with stones of mud and straw, and that they were employed as farmers in agriculture and perhaps also livestock, since they had to do heavy work on land and in the field.

So here's my question, since they were freed from the bondage, opressions or burdens from Egypt, but also from the fact that some people still longed back to it I became to wonder what kind of life they had and how they lived in Egypt;

Did they lived like most slaves at the time (and were kept) in an organized context (encampment); in their own area in small mud houses close to their area of ​​work? Or did they lived a seperate or independt life of some sort, like other lower social classes did and most often were explioted, suppressed and supposed to do the dirty and heavy work and punished if they couldn't pay the high taxes or produce enough, or punished as foreign slaves were not allowed to do much reproduction, because if they would become to many it would be threatening the Egyptian culture and livestyle.

So are there any commentaries which explain how they could live in Goshen in their own houses (with maybe some flock) while still being slaves or mistreated?

Answer 1

While the Jews did live in Goshen, that was where their families lived and where they lived on Shabbos (after Moshe Rabbeinu convinced Paroh that they needed one day off a week see shemos rabbah 1-38 and 5-8 ). However, during the entire week the men were forced to sleep in the ditches on the sides of the fields where they worked, as their taskmasters claimed that it would take too much time to allow them to go back to their houses and return in the morning (and therefore they would stop the population from growing (at least before they had Shabbos off). Therefore, their wives had to come to them, in the ditches of the fields, in order to be able to have children - בזכות נשים צדקניות נגעלו אבותינו ממצרים).

Being a slave did not mean that you were unable to own property, rather it meant that you were forced to work, without wages, for however much time any Mitzri demanded (as well as doing your normal work to support yourself and your family; the Mitzrim didn't pay them anything). Therefore, they were able to own houses, however cramped, and own sheep (which the Mitzrim didn't want anyway).

In regards to the Jews owning slaves, the Ohr Sameach says that this refers to those tribes which were not slaves themselves (Levi, and possibly Reuvein and Shimon ans well according to the Yerushalmi), who owned non-Jewish slaves, and possibly even bought the right to have Jewish slaves as well.