Slavery...

Well, lets talk about Joseph, his story, and that of his people, Israel. These are the generation that are the great-grandchildren of Abraham, the only man called God's friend in the Bible.  After his brothers came to Egypt to buy food during the famine, Joseph messed with them before he revealed himself to them as their brother.

In the closing chapters of Genesis, we see that when Joseph went to Pharaoh (Djoser) with the story of his family that the Pharaoh said bring them here to live. So all of Israel's (Joseph's father) family moved to Egypt and lived in the Nile delta in a place called Goshen. They lived there for many generations. Joseph died at 110 but left instructions to take his bones back to the land that God would lead Israel to, the promised land. After some time (about 400 years) there arose another Pharaoh over Egypt who knew not Joseph, Exodus 1:8. Israel had grown into a few million people from the original 70 that came there, for God had prospered them.

So the Pharaoh put task masters over the people of Israel and force them into labor to build treasure cities, Pthom and Raamses. However, the more Israel was afflicted, the more they grew in number. The Egyptian government was grieved over the children of Israel, Exodus 1:9-14.

The Pharaoh decided to try and kill all of the male babies of the Israelites. He ordered the midwives to kill the male babies, but they would not obey. He then ordered all of Israel to throw their male babies into the river, but save the female babies. It was a hard time for Israel, Exodus 1:15-22.