Harris’s lecture will offer a new approach to the study of ancient Greek slavery. It starts from a letter, written on lead, discovered during excavations in the Athenian Agora in 1972. The letter was written by a young slave to his mother and describes how he was chained up, whipped and humiliated. This is the only source from Classical Athens that describes the institution of slavery from the point of view of the slave; even though slaves and slavery are often mentioned in the sources, these sources always approach the institution from the perspective of the masters. This lecture will discuss how we can better understand the history of slavery in Ancient Greece from the slave’s perspective by reading "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." It thus fills in what is missing in the ancient sources and helps us to imagine a way of studying Greek History that is more balanced and inclusive.