Slavery
There is some controversy whether there was slavery at all in ancient Egypt. The differences of opinion stem mostly from how slavery is defined. Theory and practice of Egyptian slavery were, as far as we can ascertain, quite different from those of Greece, Rome or the southern states of the USA, where slaves were wholly at the mercy of their owners with little protection from society, and more in line with the kind of slavery practiced in the rest of Africa [16].

Hem (Hm), generally translated as 'slave' and originally meaning body, was seemingly a person with lessened rights dedicated to a certain task such as the service of a god (since the 1st dynasty) or the royal administration. The hemu are mentioned in the context of private persons only since the end of the Old Kingdom. [18]
Since the Middle Kingdom foreign slaves mainly from Asia became increasingly numerous. They were either prisoners of war or traded by slave merchants. Their period of enslavement in Egypt was often limited. Debt slaves or prisoners of war were at times set free after serving for a certain period.

Part of the slaves were personal servants of individuals. Others belonged to estates of temples and noblemen, often taken during a military campaign or bestowed by the king. But how is one to interpret the following Old Kingdom inscription

There were presented to him the things of his father, the judge and scribe Anubisemonekh; there was no grain or anything of the house, [but] there were people and small cattle.
The biography of Methen, 3rd dynasty
J.H.Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt Part I § 171
Were these people just tenants, free to move away if they wanted to, or - as the context seems to suggest - more like part of the estate, perhaps with a social position similar to that of a medieval serf? Such inscriptions, tying together land and labourer, occur frequently throughout Egyptian history [25].
For want of better words I use slave and slavery on this website to refer to people with significantly reduced rights [20] and their social state.

The enslavement
Debt
Some Egyptians were sold into slavery because of debts or sold themselves to escape poverty. As indentured slaves they did not lose all their civil rights; and sometimes the economic security they gained through their new status might seem to be worth giving up some freedoms for.
A remnant of these customs is seen in the demotic contracts concerning security, where grasping the hand refers to the warrantor's hand being held by the creditor symbolizing the debtor giving the creditor power over his person. Debt slavery was abolished in the Late Dynastic Period.

Punishment
It has been proposed that the vizier had the right to impose perpetual forced labour on a convicted criminal, which would put him in a position of virtual slavery. [19]

Voluntary servitude
A woman paid a temple to be accepted as a servant [10]:

The female servant ... has said before my master, Saknebtynis, the great god,
'I am your servant, together with my children and my children's children. I shall not be free in your precinct forever and ever. You will protect me; you will keep me safe; you will guard me. You will keep me sound; you will protect me from every demon, and I will pay you 1¼ kita of copper . . . until the completion of 99 years, and I will give it to your priests monthly.'
Peter Piccione The Status of Women in Ancient Egyptian Society [12]
But whether this kind of voluntary servitude was anything like the bondage imposed on a destitute debtor cannot be answered.

War
While there had been slaves in Egypt since the beginning of its history, their numbers greatly increased during the New Kingdom, when the pharaohs were committed to a policy of foreign involvement and conquests in Nubia, Canaan and Syria brought in many prisoners of war, seqer-ankh, who were enslaved, at times branded with the sign ki

I gave to them captains of archers, and chief men of the tribes, branded and made into slaves, impressed with my name; their wives and their children were made likewise.
Papyrus Harris
James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, Part IV, § 405
and often given to deserving servants of the crown:
Then Avaris was despoiled, and I brought spoil from there: one man, three women; total, four persons. His majesty gave them to me as slaves. Then Sharuhen was besieged for three years. His majesty despoiled it and I brought spoil from it: two women and a hand.
From the autobiography of Ahmose, son of Ebana
18th dynasty
During the campaigns of Thutmose III prisoners of war were taken and slaves were part of the tribute paid by the defeated.

The number of spoil taken in them ..... of vile Naharina who were as defenders among them, with their horses, 691 prisoners, 29 hands [of slain], 48 mares ... in that year 295 male and female slaves, 68 horses, 3 gold dishes, 3 silver dishes, ..........
Report from the 42nd (?) year of the reign of Thutmose III
W.M.F. Petrie A History of Egypt Part II p.122
In the 41st (?) year of Thutmose's reign he received from the Hittites among other things eight male and female black slaves, calling it tribute. The Hittites must have thought of them as presents, probably quite valuable ones, as black persons were a rarity among them.
Defeated nations like the Nubians which lost their independence and were administered by the Egyptians, paid taxes which often included slaves. Their number was not as great for Lower Nubia as it was for Kush which produced less gold than its northern neighbour.
The successful defence against the Sea Peoples resulted in large numbers of slaves as well, when whole wandering peoples were defeated and captured. The following, somewhat generalizing, report describes the exploits of Ramses III

... I laid low the Meshwesh, the Libyans, the Esbet, the Keykesh, the Shai, the Hes and the Beken.
... I carried away those whom my sword spared, as numerous captives, pinioned like birds before my horses, their wives and their children by the ten-thousand, their cattle in number like hundred-thousands.....
Harris Papyrus
James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt Part IV § 405
The least fortunate captives were sent to work as slaves in the dreadful gold and copper mines of Nubia and Sinai, where, according to the Greeks, water was rationed and men died in great numbers from exhaustion and dehydration in the desert heat. On the other hand not all the prisoners were enslaved: some were absorbed into the army, where Sherden for instance constituted a large part of the bodyguard of Ramses II.

Many slaves laboured on the estates of the pharaohs, the nobility and the priests. Seti I announced on the Wadi Halfa stela how he had endowed Min-Amen's temple at Buhen, so that his storehouse was filled with male and female slaves from the captivity of his majesty, L.P.H. Ramses III is said to have given 113,000 to the temples during the course of his reign.
The slaves who found themselves serving the royal family [14] or the nobility were generally the lucky ones. Their life was often less hard than that of the native peasants. The children of a few of these slaves, foreigners or Egyptians, who had exceptional ability, made themselves indispensable to their masters and rose to high positions in the bureaucracy or married into their former owners' families after being set free.
By birth

In the Roman empire the offspring of slaves inherited their parents' status [22]. At times, similar circumstances seem to have ruled the destinies of Egyptian slaves [23]. On a stela Sheshonq lists his endowments of supplies, land, gardens and people and states their value:
[...] Nesitetat, triumphant [15], whose mother is Tedimut, the female slave, daughter of Nebethapi; her mother, Ero ....ekh; [the female slave], [Tepiramenef], daughter of Paynehsi, triumphant; ......... for each one; 5 2/3 kidet of silver being the price of the man; amounting to 3 2/3 deben.
21st dynasty
Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, part IV, § 682
Children of dependants were passed on together with their parents:
I bequeath to the Citizeness Ineksenedjem, the woman who is in my house, all that I have acquired with her, namely, two male servants and two female servants, total 4, and their children.
The will of Amenkhau, c.1100 BCE
Capture

According to the apocryphal story in the Bible Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers [1]
26 And Judah said unto his brethren: What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?
27 Come and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and not let our hands be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.
28 Then there passed by Midianite merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver [2]; and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
Genesis, 37
Similar occurrences took place all over the ancient world: Travellers could easily and often illegally be captured in foreign lands where nobody knew them, and sold into slavery; and there was often no one they could appeal to for help [22].
The slave trade
Unlike what happened in ancient Rome for instance, where the trade in slaves was often in the hands of rich merchants and took place in slave markets, the Egyptian slave trade was seemingly small scale. During pharaonic times no slave markets seem to have existed. But even if slavery was never as pervading in Egypt as it was to be in other ancient societies, such as the Greek or Roman, it appears that slaves were traded widely from the New Kingdom onwards.
Slaves were sold all over the Middle East, and Egypt was an, albeit rather insignificant, partner in these exchanges. Slaves were traded internationally when they had special qualities, rare skills of the kind Amenhotep III was looking for, when he wanted to buy beautiful concubines, i.e. weavers, or perhaps exotic looks such as those of some dark-skinned Nubians who were sent to Hatti as a gift.

The price of a slave

Prices were affordable to the better-off householder. Iry-nofret paid the equivalent of 4 deben [3] and 1 kit of silver, (i.e. 41 kit, about 370 grammes) for a Syrian girl
"... The woman Iry-nofret said:
'[As for me, I am the wife of the District Overseer Sa-Mut], and I came to live in his house, and I worked and [wove?] and took care of my (own) clothes. In the year 15, 7 years after I had entered the house of the District Overseer Sa-[Mut], the merchant Ray approached me with the Syrian slave Gemni-herimentet, while she was (still) a girl, [and he] said to me: "Buy this girl and give me the price for her"--so he spoke to me. And I took the girl and gave him [the price] for her. Now look, I shall tell the price which I gave for her:
1 shroud of Upper Egyptian linen, making 5 kit of silver;
1 sheet of Upper Egyptian linen, making 3 1/3 kit of silver; ...
bought from the woman Katy, 1 bronze jar, making 18 deben, making 1 2/3 kit of silver; ...
bought from the Chief Steward of the House of Amun, Tutu: 1 bronze jug, making 20 deben, making 2 kit of silver;
10 shirts of fine Upper Egyptian linen making 4 kit of silver--
Total of everything, 4 deben, 1 kit of silver.
And I gave them to the merchant Ray, and there was nothing in them belonging to the woman Bak-Mut. And he gave me this girl, and I called her by the name Gemni-herimentet.'
Translated by John A. Wilson
James B. Pritchard, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament

Amenhotep III ordered 40 girls from Milkilu, the Canaanite prince of Gezer, at 40 kit of silver each
Behold, I have sent you Hanya, the commissioner of the archers, with merchandise in order to have beautiful concubines, i.e. weavers; silver, gold, garments, turquoises, all sorts of precious stones, chairs of ebony, as well as all good things, worth 160 deben. In total: forty concubines - the price of every concubine is forty of silver. Therefore, send very beautiful concubines without blemish.
Letter from Amenhotep III to Milkilu
Male slaves were at times significantly cheaper than these accomplished females, probably depending on their abilities and the uses they were going to be put to. Their price could be as low as 20 kit of silver.
Prices during the 21st dynasty were not the same as those during the New Kingdom. Caution is therefore required when making comparisons. The stela of Sheshonq lists the following:
There were brought the people of the .... of the great chief of the Me, who came with the statue: A Syrian servant (named) Ikhamon ...., a Syrian (named) Ekptah; the price of the first was 14 deben of silver; his majesty gave [for the second] 20 deben of silver, total 35 deben of silver, the tale thereof.
21st dynasty
Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, part IV, § 680
A case of dodgy mathematics. A second batch mentioned was cheaper
His [slave] Pewer, son of ....f; his slave Ebek, his slave Bupenamonkha; his slave Neshenumeh; his slave, Dene; total of slaves: 6; amounting at 3 deben 1 kidet of silver each, to 1[8] deben [6 kidet] of silver.
21st dynasty
Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, part IV, § 682
The slave population
Like all ancient population statistics, estimating the number of slaves in ancient Egypt is based more on guesswork than on knowledge. In pharaonic times their part in the population may have been greatest during the expansionary stage of the New Kingdom empire, when whole populations were enslaved at times. Thutmose III for instance is reported to have returned from a campaign in Canaan with almost 90,000 prisoners. Given the small size of armies - generally thousands rather than tens of thousands of soldiers - most of these prisoners must have been civilians.
The Egyptians may have preferred to make slaves of the able bodied soldiers of defeated enemy armies than of the inhabitants of captured cities, the majority of whom were children and women. During antiquity there was a preponderance of male slaves, who were often more valued than the females for the hard labour they could perform. But the most cherished - and expensive - were generally those who had special or rare skills.
Compared with the vast empires of the Persians, Macedonians or Romans the Egyptian conquests in Africa and the Middle East were not very extensive. The subjugated populations were correspondingly small. Once these territories were 'pacified', the number of prisoners of war that could be enslaved was limited.
The temples, above all those of Amen, enjoyed unprecedented prosperity during the New Kingdom. Except during the Amarna episode, they were generously endowed with land and people to work it. They must have owned hundreds of thousands of slaves.
John Madden of the University College of Galway thinks that in Roman times perhaps 10% of the Egyptian population was enslaved, with their density varying greatly throughout the country, as opposed to the Roman heartland where about every third inhabitant was a slave [4].
The treatment of slaves
If the slaves were near the bottom of Egyptian society, their lot was rarely as bad as that of slaves in other societies. As servants in a temple or in the household of a rich family it was often better than that of the "free" peasants, the serf-like meret [7] and the sejdemash [8] called up for the unloved corvée [11].
Treating a slave well was a moral precept, but the very fact that decent treatment of slaves was a moral duty means that they must have been treated badly quite often. In the Book of the Dead two of the dead person's virtues recited in order to join the company of the gods among others like not having inflicted pain or not having committed murder are
I have not domineered over slaves.
I have not vilified a slave to his master.
The negative confessions
Book of the Dead
The slaves filled a wide range of positions, from lowly labourers to government administrators. On temple estates they performed many non-clerical tasks:
I appointed slaves as watchmen in thy harbour, in order to watch the harbour of the Heliopolitan canal in thy splendid place. I made door-keepers of the slaves, manned with people, in order to watch and protect thy court. I made slaves as watchmen of the canal-administration, and the watchmen of the pure barley, for thee likewise.
Donation of Ramses III to the temple of Re at Heliopolis
Harris Papyrus
James H. Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt Part Four, § 266
In a society where people lived in nuclear families, life expectancy was low and one could lose all one's close relatives through accident or disease in the span of a few years, slaves might become the only family a person had

I have taken them, I have fed them, I have brought them up. I have reached this day with them and they have done me no harm. They have rather treated me well. I have no son, no daughter apart from them. And if I have fields in this country, if I have goods in this world, .... these shall divided between my four children, Padim being one of them.
Adoption papyrus
Year 27 of Ramses XI
On the other hand there were times during the pre-dynastic period, when the belongings buried with a dead king included slaves. This practice disappeared [6] and the sacrificed servants were replaced by ushabtis, mummyform statuettes who were to serve the dead and perform his civic duties in his stead.
Slaves could be sold, given as presents or bequeathed in wills. The four Canaanites in the following testament had been left to Wah as family dependants in his brother's will. Whether they were slaves or just servants, tradition required their master to take care of them.

Year 2, Month 2 of the Inundation Season, day 18. Will made by the Priest in Charge of the Duty-shifts (of priests) of (the god) Sopdu, Lord of the East, Wah
I am making a will for my wife, a lady of the town of Gesiabet, Sheftu, nick-named Teti, daughter of Sit-Sopdu, concerning all the property that my brother Ankh-renef, the Trustworthy Sealer of the Controller of Works, gave to me along with all the goods belonging to his estate that he gave to me. She may give these things as she pleases to any children of mine she may bear.
I also give to her the four Canaanites that my brother Ankh-renef, the Trustworthy Sealer of Works, gave to me. She may give (them) as she please to her children
..........
Papyrus Kahun I, 1 (ca. 1900 BCE)
Problems arose when the master had sex with his female slaves which could threaten the relationships between the family members, above all when children were born. Next to nothing is known about the status of such issue.
Runaway slaves
Slaves being property, if they tried to escape they were pursued and recaptured if possible. The reason for attempted escapes was often harsh treatment.
Two men escaped from the supervisor of the stables, Neferhotep, who had ordered them to be beaten. Since their flight there is no one to plough the earth. I'm sending this to inform my lord.
Montet Daily Life in Ancient Egypt, Chapter 3, §4
There were two options open to a runaway, one crossing the desert in order to reach a foreign country, the other seeking asylum in a temple
Now there was upon the shore, as still there is now, a temple of Heracles, in which if any man's slave take refuge and have the sacred marks set upon him, giving himself over to the god, it is not lawful to lay hands upon him; but this custom has continued still unchanged from the beginning down to my own time.
Herodotus, Histories II
Gutenberg Project
The road through the desert was hazardous, and only a desperate man would attempt it on his own and without proper preparations. Even if the runaway succeeded in crossing the wilderness without falling into the hands of roving bands of robbers, he wasn't necessarily safe. International treaties were concluded which stipulated extradition of free people, commoners or noblemen, between countries.
If a man or two men who are unknown flee, and if they escape from the country of Egypt and if they don't want to serve him, then Hattusili, the great king, the king of the country of Hatti, has to deliver them into his brother's hands and he shall not allow them to inhabit the country of Hatti.
From the peace treaty between Ramses II and Hattusili III
One suspects that extradition of slaves may also have been practised.
The setting free of slaves
Sometimes slaves were set free through manumission - a practice deemed advantageous for the soul of the slave owner - and were at times even adopted by the family of their former master
The slave given to me for my own and whose name is Amenyoiu, I have won him by the force of my arm when I accompanied my king. Listen .... He shall no longer be stopped at any of the king's gates. I have given him the daughter of my sister Nebetta as wife, who is named Takamenet, and have bequeathed him a portion equal to my wife's and my sister's. As for him, he has emerged from need and is poor no longer.
Sa-bastet, royal barber,
Year 27 of Thutmose III
Translation after Christiane Desroches Noblecourt La femme aux temps des pharaons, page 184.
At times people seem to have expected former slaves to continue to be servile. A woman who had freed and adopted her slaves used rather graphic language in an attempt to protect her charges from annoyances: May a donkey copulate with him and a donkey with his wife, whoever it be that shall call any of them a servant. [23]
The only direct 'evidence' for the sudden rise of a freedman on the Egyptian social ladder is literary [24]: After interpreting the Pharaoh's dream and giving good council Joseph not only regained his freedom, but was appointed to a high governmental position [1]:
41 ... the Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
42 And the Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
43 And he made him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On.
Genesis, 41
The number of people with Asiatic names serving as royal officials was significant during the New Kingdom [9]. If they had not been slaves themselves, they were probably descendents of slaves. The Egyptians do not seem to have had any problems with this.
Nubians appear to have fared less well than Asiatics, and they rarely reached high office. The reasons for this are unknown, but quite possibly there were many more Asiatic than African slaves during the New Kingdom, or the Nubians may have been better integrated into Egyptian society and we cannot single them out as well as the Asiatics.

Slaves regained their freedom through their own efforts, by somebody else's munificence or, as in the case of the courtesan Rhodopis, by a combination of the two.
As for Rhodopis, she came to Egypt brought by Xanthes the Samian, and having come thither to exercise her calling she was redeemed from slavery for a great sum by a man of Mytilene, Charaxos son of Scamandronymos and brother of Sappho the lyric poet. Thus was Rhodopis set free, and she remained in Egypt and by her beauty won so much liking that she made great gain of money ...
Herodotus, Histories II
Gutenberg Project
Appendix
The status of women and foreigners
Women
In Egypt free women, who were often little more than chattel in many Mediterranean countries, enjoyed many rights and were according to Egyptian custom at least in theory mostly equal to men in the eyes of society and before the law. They had the right to possess property and to dispose of it [12], though they seem to have been more vulnerable to being dispossessed, as testators often added threats and curses against people trying to violate the rights of their female heirs.
Their persons did not belong to their fathers or husbands; and they could decide - again at least theoretically - about their own marriage or divorce. But until the Late Period it was generally the father of the bride who decided whom his daughter should marry. Given the young age at which many girls were married, this is hardly surprising.
Foreigners
In many countries foreigners had few rights during ancient times, and their status was at times little better than that of slaves. In Egypt resident foreigners had rights, sometimes secured by bilateral international conventions. Their person and property were protected by law, though sometimes their kings had to intervene on their behalf [13]. Only in the case of their having fallen into captivity during a war could they be enslaved. It is unlikely for instance that the Hebrews after entering Egypt peacefully, would have been treated as slaves, but they would have been drafted like everybody else and set to work on public buildings at Per-Atom (the biblical Pithom) [5].
The tradition of tolerating foreigners settling in Egypt went hand in hand with contempt for their culture and military prowess

..... Asiatics; others have been placed in their abodes ...... the have been destroyed, and their town laid waste, and fire has been thrown ....... [they have come to entreat] the Great in Strength to send his mighty sword before ...... Their countries are starving, they live like goats in the mountain, [their] children ...... saying: "A few of the Asiatics, who knew not how they should live, have come [begg]ing [a home in the domain of Pharaoh, L.P.H., after the manner of your fathers' fathers since the beginning, under ....... Now, the Pharaoh, L.P.H., gives them into your hand to protect their borders."
Inscription in Horemheb's tomb
James H. Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Three, § 11