Interpreting The Amistad Trials traces the signal importance of interpreters and translators in the famous 19th-century Amistad case and discusses how race, ethnicity, slavery, and colonialism shaped this story.
From the recruitment process to the various oral to sign languages that mediated linguistically in the Africans life inside and outside the courtroom, and from evidentiary documents to fraudulent translations to credible testimonies, Jeanette Zaragoza-De León demonstrates the crucial importance of translation and interpretation in the Amistad plot and outcome. De León examines handwritten letters, pamphlets, newspapers, and judicial files, and adopts a critical race theory and postcolonial lens to analyze these materials. Although these critical interpretations and translations travelled transatlantically via Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States, De León highlights the common thread which also geographically unites Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic as part of the Amistad story.
One of the most comprehensive studies of recorded events in the history of interpretation and translation in the Americas, Interpreting The Amistad Trials is a valuable resource for researchers studying coloniality, enslavement, race and ethnic studies and examining how these issues mattered then and now.
Recenzijas
This is a fascinating case-study in how translation and interpreting shape macro and microhistories. The book is a clarion call to understand power, agency, and human rights as radically dependent on language and linguistic mediation. * Hilary Footitt, Professor, Institute of Languages, Cultures, and Societies, University of London, UK * Zaragoza-De León leaves no stone unturned in her exploration of the Amistad trials, taking the reader by the hand to uncover information which has changed the course of history, as well as the lives of hundreds of people. If you want to know more about the influence of interpretation and translation throughout history, Interpreting the Amistad Trials is the book for you. * Claudia V. Angelelli, Professor and Chair in Multilingualism and Communication, Heriot-Watt University, UK * Zaragoza-De Leóns recovery of the archival record and careful examination of the role of interpreters in the Amistad case elucidates the legal processes, imperial conflict, and impact of language understanding through interpreting the cultural history of memory and violent erasures of racialized trauma. This book is an invitation to rethink the relationship between dominance, the law, and the pivotal role of language in the transoceanic history of African slavery. * Santa Arias, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Arizona, USA *
Papildus informācija
Drawing on the 19th-century Amistad Case, this book unravels how interpreters and translators shaped the history of race, slavery, and colonialism embedded in this renowned transatlantic story.
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 AbolitionistsSome 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 Greenhowthe Second Amistad Translatorand the Creation of the
1840 Congressional Sub Committee to Explore the Amistad Translation Matters
William B. Hodgsonthe Backstage Translator in the Amistad Congressional
Saga
William Jay, Esq., the Fourth Amistad Translator
4. The Recruitment
The Amistad Recruitment Strategies
Wanteda 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, 1839The 2nd Court Hearing
Interpreters 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
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.
