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Slavery was customary in antiquity and taken for granted, as part of the economy and society of the time. The Torah neither encourages nor discourages slavery. However, in the event that a person has a slave, it sets minimum rules on their treatment (eg Leviticus 25:44-46; Exodus 21:7-11).
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http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(World_English)/Leviticus#Chapter_25
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35 "'If your brother has become poor, and his hand can't support him among you; then you shall uphold him. As a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you. 36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
39 "'If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave. 40 As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee: 41 then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. 43 You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.
44 "'As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have; of the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. 45 Moreover of the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property. 46 You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them may you take your slaves forever: but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.
47 "'If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger's family; 48 after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49 or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. 50 He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him. 51 If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. 52 If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption. 53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. 54 If he isn't redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him. 55 For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(World_English)/Exodus#Chapter_21
1 "Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything. 3 If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. 5 But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;' 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.
7 "If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do. 8 If she doesn't please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, seeing he has dealt deceitfully with her. 9 If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. 10 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights. 11 If he doesn't do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus#Bondage_in_Egypt
... Moses encounters God, and God tells him to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites into(Canaan) the land promised to Abraham.
On Moses' return to Egypt, God instructs him to appear before Pharaoh and inform him of God's demand that he let God's people go. Moses and his brother Aaron do so, but Pharaoh refuses. God causes a series of plagues, but Pharaoh does not relent. God instructs Moses to institute the Passover sacrifice among the Israelites, and then God kills all the firstborn children of the Egyptians. Pharaoh agrees to let the Israelites go. Moses explains the meaning of the Passover: it is for Israel's salvation from Egypt, so that the Israelites will not be required to sacrifice their own sons, but to redeem them.
