Interpreting the Amistad Trials

Jeanette Zaragoza De León is Assistant Professor in the Graduate Translation Program and is coordinator of the first academic program in interpreting studies in Puerto Rico at the University of Puerto Rico. With more than 15 years of experience as an interpreter and translator, her historical research centers around interpreters and translators in the 19th-century transatlantic world.

List of Definitions
List of Figures
The Names of the Amistad Interpreters and Translators
Preface
Foreword by William G. Thomas III

Introduction
1. Like Water for Chocolate: The Colonial and Enslaving Background of the Amistad Case
Transatlantic and Transnational Trade: The Backdrop of the Amistad Case
The Amistad Christian Abolitionists—Some Friends in the Midst of an Unfriendly Environment
Court Interpreting in the Nineteenth Century in Spain, Colonized Territories, and the USA
2. Translated Racial and Ethnic Issues in the Amistad Case
Introduction: How They Mattered
On the Evidentiary Documents: The Licencias
Translation Issues from Connecticut to Congress, from the Judicial to the Executive Branch
Translating Slavery and Liberation via the Amistad Missives
3. The Amistad Translators
John Quincy Adams, One of the Four Amistad Translators
JQA, Robert Greenhow—the Second Amistad Translator—and the Creation of the 1840 Congressional Sub Committee to Explore the Amistad Translation Matters
William B. Hodgson—the Backstage Translator in the Amistad Congressional Saga
William Jay, Esq., the Fourth Amistad Translator
4. The Recruitment
The Amistad Recruitment Strategies
Wanted—a Court Interpreter for the Amistad Case and List of Requirements
The “Simple Truth”: Many Were Called; Few Were Chosen.
Interpreters Found! “Covey and Pratt of Brig Buzzard.”
5. The Transatlantic Interpreters in the Amistad Case
How They Shaped History and How History Shaped Them
James K. Covey: The Final Court Interpreter of the Amistad Case
Antonio Ferrer a.k.a. “Antonio, the cabin boy”
John Ferry, the First African Interpreter in the Amistad Case
Sign Language Interpreting in the Amistad Case
6. The Amistad Hearings
September 19th, 1839—The 2nd Court Hearing
Interpreter’s Depositions Support Cultural and Language Identification
The Postponement of the November 19th, 1839 Trial: James Covey at Fault
Prelude to the November Trial: Knives’ Smugglers and Interpreters for Liberation
7. The "Amistad" Trial from January 7th to January 11th of 1840
January 7th, 1840. First Day of Trial: Language at Trial.
January 8th, 1840. Second Day of Trial: The Interpreter at Trial
January 9th, 1840. Third Day of Trial
Conclusion

Bibliography
Index