First Person Stories from Enslaved People

Dear Xenokles and mother,

I'm nearly dying in the foundry! Please do something about it. Come to my masters and find something better for me here(?). I've been handed over to an absolutely dreadful man. I'm getting thrashed within an inch of my life; I'm tied up; I'm being treated like dirt - it's getting worse and worse.

Yours, Lesis.

Context

While the initial scholar who published this tablet assumed that Lesis was a free metic (resident foreigner, non-citizen), the language of the tablet suggests that he was instead enslaved. The term used for "masters" (despotes), is only ever used for enslavers in surviving Greek texts. If Lesis is enslaved, then his mother (likely also enslaved) and Xenokles would not be able to do anything to protect him, so it was initially assumed that there would have been no point in sending this letter. However, it speaks to the desperation that comes from experiencing such violence, as Lesis may have been making an emotional plea for recognition of his suffering or for any possible help, rather than a request for realistic legal aid.

This letter reflects the normalization of violence against enslaved people in Classical Athens. However, it can also be read as a small act of agency that an enslaved person could exercise in the face of that violence. While this letter may not have changed his status, Lesis still used the resources available to him to attempt to speak out against the terrible treatment that he faced. This also reminds us that the normalization of such violence was not actually all-encompassing; Lesis was certainly capable of recognizing the unnecessary brutality of his situation. 

Reading between the lines, this letter also provides a complicated view of relationship networks for enslaved people. On one hand, there are elements of Orlando Patterson's concept of natal alienation, or the removal of enslaved people from societally recognized family and cultural structures. Lesis is clearly separated from his immediate family as he must send a letter to his mother to alert her of his experience. If Lesis was born to an enslaved mother, her enslaver could have easily sold him off to his current "masters" without any input from her. Lesis is also a non-Athenian name, which is a reminder of the forced separation of enslaved people from their communities, both in moving them to Greece and by purposefully separating them from other enslaved people of similar origin (Pl. Laws 6.777c-d). However, the letter also shows how enslaved people can maintain those natal ties and create their own networks. While Lesis' mother may not have had any legal authority over her child, she was still clearly an important figure in his life. Traces of foreign homelands in names and epitaphs show that enslaved people may have still identified with their lost homes, despite enforced physical distance.