The search for a Mendi-court interpreter in The Amistad Case in order to challenge the institution of slavery

Abstract

After surviving the horrors of the Middle Passage from the African continent to USA soil through the trespassos in Cuba, 53 Mendi Africans revolted and took ownership of the vessel they were being transported on, La Amistad. A few months later, on August 26th, 1839, while trading for basic goods, a US navy ship off the coast of Long Island intercepted them and towed both ship and the enslaved Africans. The Spaniards whose lives had been spared for the sole purpose of returning them to Africa enjoyed the privilege of Spanish interpreting and receptive ideological interlocutors during the first court hearing. The opposite was true for the Africans who did not understand and speak any Spanish or English. Having being charged with murder and piracy in the pro-slavery state of Connecticut, they desperately needed legal assistance. Christian Abolitionists present at this hearing recognized immediately that these Africans had been illegally obtained as the result of transatlantic trade activities. From this moment on, Christian Abolitionists made it their unique goal to find a suitable Mendi court interpreter as the key factor of their defense strategy. For the upcoming 40 days, they employed their resources, time and intimate network to find an interpreter. Based on the proslavery historical and conservative theo-ideological colonial background, the recruitment process unfolded a particular set of qualifications and requirements for the ideal Mendi interpreter. Within the realm of interpreting historicity and qualitative studies, using a multidisciplinary methodological framework and combining postcolonial and ideological filters, together with a hermeneutics of suspicion, this research represents my first attempt at uncovering this unique recruitment process that culminated in a successful search. Early October of 1839 two Mende interpreters, James Covey and Charles Pratt, were found. This study, thus, seeks to place at the center of a very well-known and documented historical event in USA history the search and recruitment process of a court interpreter in order to challenge the USA nineteenth century institution of slavery.