Is there any credibility to the stories at all about Jewish slavery at the hands of the Egyptians? If so, how did they get there, and what was the real cause of them being freed? From what I understand there's not really any substantial evidence that point to the fact of them wandering in the desert afterward but I'm curious as to why the Jews ended up in Egypt.
In short, while it could have happened, there's not really any solid evidence outside of Exodus for it happening. Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, of course, though - it would be very difficult to determine what could be considered evidence to begin with. Consider how the Biblical Pharaoh is never named, for example. Likewise, the Israelites of the time would have been fairly different as far as customs, material culture, etc. are concerned from their later, more well-documented descendants. So if we consider the Exodus account to be true, the Israelites were slaves, which would mean they would likely be illiterate, meaning no inscriptions or writings, assuming such things would otherwise easily survive. Because much of Jewish tradition and law comes from the Torah, and because the Torah claims it was written after the exodus, there won't be ritualistic artifacts like mikvehs. So, it's possible, but unlikely.
There's a small sub, /r/academicbiblical, which is excellent for these kind of questions.
I am a frequent contributor to /r/AcademicBiblical and this question would be handled with the utmost rigor over there. Please, xpost post this.