- James Covey
James Covey is the English name of the interpreter chosen for the Amistad slave ship case (40 U.S. (15 Pet.) 518 (1841)) who spoke Mende and possibly other
African languages . His original name was Kai Nyagua.Covey was born in
Africa in about1819 . At twelve years of age, he was kidnapped from hisSierra Leone village by an unknown black man. He was sold at aslave holding camp calledLomboko . Covey was placed upon aship headed forCuba , even though the Trans-Atlantic slave trade had already been outlawed. However, the ship was intercepted by a British warship and Covey, with the other captives, was freed. Covey then joined theBritish fleet . He arrived inNew York aboard the HMS Buzzard in June1839 .Yale professor Josiah Gibbs, seeking anyone who spoke the
Mende language to assist him by interpreting for the Amistad captives, went toNew York Harbor and loudly counted to ten in Mende until someone who could understand him approached. Gibbs had learned to count in Mende from some of the Africans found aboard the Amistad. Covey approached Gibbs and was eventually taken toNew Haven , where he came into contact with the African captives of the Amistad. However, while Covey was able to speak both English and Mende, it was found that only three of the captives spoke Mende.Covey stayed in New Haven for four months, until he had translated the testimonies of the three Mende speaking captives in the Amistad civil trial in
Hartford ,Connecticut in1841 . Because of his own experience, Covey was instrumental in interpreting the details of the kidnapping, terror, and eventualmutiny . The case, and the fate of the captives, was eventually appealed to theUnited States Supreme Court . The Court ultimately ruled that the captives were not slaves, but free men. Two years after the trials, in November 1841, Covey, along with the surviving Africans of the Amistad, boarded the ship Gentleman and sailed back to Africa.References
* [http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/timeline/courttimeline.html The Museum of America and the Sea]
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