Were the Jewish people ever actually enslaved in Egypt

Why did the pharaohs of ancient Egypt enslave the Jews?

One compelling theory is that the Hebrews came as mercenaries, allies, or functionaries of the Hyksos pharaohs.  When the Theban princes were able to oust the foreign regime the Hebrews will have been seen as a subversive and reactionary element to be contained.  If the Hebrews had served as tax collectors or other coercive government officials there may have been some payback involved.

In support of this theory it's noted that "Apiru" was the Egyptian word for "foreigner".  Its similarity to "Hebrew" suggests to proponents that the latter word was derived from the former.

Were the Jews enslaved in ancient Egypt?

So, this is an excellent question because, as the OP wrote, other than the Bible - which is pretty clear that the ancient Hebrews (technically there weren’t any Jews at the time since the Kingdom of Judea was still in the future) were enslaved in Egypt - there is no other ancient narrative to back up the claim.

It should be noted that this is a hot topic of debate within Jewish theological circles - in 2013 Rabbi David Wolpe - Wikipedia (who was head of the American Reform Jewish movement at the time) and Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Prof. David Sperling asserted that Exodus - slavery of the Hebrews and the 40 years wandering around the Sinai never happened. The core reasoning being that if over 600,000 people were wandering around the Sinai for 40 years, there would be archeological evidence. And, none was found. Not a single potsherd, animal bone, nothing.

To say this is disturbing to the core Jewish religious community is - an understatement. The story of Exodus - and the Passover holiday - is central to Judaism today, as it has been for millennia.

Rebuttals followed—for example: The Exodus Is Not Fiction published in Reform Judaism magazine in 2014, which states that maybe it wasn’t all of the ancient Hebrew community, but just the Tribe of Levy. There is reason to believe that the Levites, who became the priests at the Temple in Jerusalem, probably wrote much of the Torah - especially any books that specifically mention the Exodus story.

The arguments against the historicity of Exodus is found here: Evidence for the Exodus - and are based on solid archeological research. There was no period of major decline of Pharaonic Egypt during the time that roughly is supposed to correspond to the Exodus story - which would have come to light based on the plagues. There is no corresponding signs of a huge mass of ancient people crossing the Red Sea (or the Sea of Reeds per the original Hebrew).

In sum, this is an article of faith for the Jewish community, and it encompasses some important lessons:

Remember that you were once slaves in the land of Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you!

Deuteronomy 15:15

This is a core belief in Judaism, that men should treat all people with dignity since you never know who you are dealing with, and at one time - no matter how high we have risen - we were just slaves.

Were the Hebrews slaves in Egypt?

New evidence points to the Hebrew being a border state for the Egyptians. That is they provided security and paid taxes in return for the land and participation in the Egyptian state. Many Hebrews held high positions in Egyptian government. The Hebrew apparently held too much influence however and Native Egyptians became jealous. This caused a clamp down on the Hebrew which the Hebrew felt like they were being treated like slaves. Thus the split between Hebrew and Egyptian and fleeing the lands of Egypt as described in Exodus.

As for slaves in the literal sense. Probably not, at least not on a a cultural level. It is likely that a number of Hebrew were literally enslaved toward the end for unjust and trumped up reasons.

The Egyptians did use slaves. Some of these were Hebrew. There is archaeological evidence of this such as early Hebrew etchings in the mines. There is also archaeological evidence that Hebrews held high positions, something an enslaved people could not accomplish.  So one has to conclude a sort of complex relationship with the Egyptians, but not the typical impression we get from the Bible. The English translations do a really poor job with Exodus. The translators seem to have intentionally softened and biased toward the Hebrew according to modern Western values. If you look at a more literal translation of a story already told with a bias for the Hebrew, you'll see a rather different and more realistic story.  I suggest getting an Ancient Hebrew concordex and  reading Exodus the way it was written rather than the rather badly done Latin and even worse English translations.

Did the Jews believe in an afterlife before they were enslaved in Egypt?

The Jews were a faction of the Canaanite, who were not only not enslaved but were the professional magi for Egypt. If a tomb needed a spell against snakes, if someone needed their fortune told, it was a professional Canaanite sorcerer who was summoned. We know this from the inscriptions and surviving documents of the time.

Although there's no evidence Joseph existed (certainly the famine didn't), he can be considered representative of the extremely high status these people had.

The Canaanites were not religious in the same way the Egyptians were, until after the Late Bronze Age Collapse. They used spells, shamanic rituals, animism, etc. They had a pantheon, but of guardian spirits rather than strict deities. Typically, such cultures had a concept of an afterlife, but one alien to any modern religion.

Formal religion (and the start of the Jews as an independent people) came after Sumerian priests left Babylon and/or Ur to join up with the Yahweh Canaanites. This was around the time Mesopotamia was being overrun by Sea People and Egypt had temporarily ceased to exist.

It's hard to be enslaved by something that didn't exist, but as they'd never been enslaved to begin with, that's by the by.

The Sumerians had no notion of an afterlife (your consciousness rotted in the ground) unless the person was specifically championed by a god or goddess. This would have been combined with Canaanite thinking to produce a prototype heaven and hell.

Were the Jews ever repaid for all of the work they did for the Egyptians as slaves?

I’d like to add to the very clear and concise answer given by Robert Strickland. Despite all the evidence thats been known by archeologists for centuries, western society wants Egypt to be white, not a black face in sight in of all places Africa!

Ever since Napolean traveled to Egypt and marveled at what the black people had built, there’s been a steady movement on the part of not all, but many white archeologists to de-negrotize Egypt, to whitewash history. French campaign in Egypt and Syria - Wikipedia

Tell me, how much dam evidence do we need? Black is black. King Tut’s grandmother, Queen Tiye was black!

What is she called in Mississippi? Yea…exactly.

The more evidence and black faces presented, the more the archeologists want to claim the builders were not black.

Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s antiquities in a recent History Channel program noted that the pyramid builders were not beaten slaves, but the evidence shows they were highly skilled, compensated workers living in self organized communities. Moreover, the ancient, but still existing hieroglyphic-pictographic evidence we have of the pyramids being built show them being built by black people, and some of my Hindu Indian brothers would argue, by Giants, not Jews.

Daitya - Wikipedia

Genesis 6:4 The giants were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

Anakim - Wikipedia