James Covey

James Benjamin Covey (né Kaweli; c. 1825 – 12 October 1850)[citation needed] was a sailor, remembered today chiefly for his role as interpreter during the legal proceedings in the United States federal courts that followed the 1839 revolt aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad.

[2] Josiah Gibbs, a professor of linguistics at Yale University who was personally committed to the abolition of slavery, sought to assist the legal defense of the Africans who had come into the custody of the U.S. federal courts after their uprising on board La Amistad.

[2][3] Gibbs took both Covey and Pratt to New Haven, where they were housed under the protection of Lewis Tappan and the committee for the defense of the captives of the Amistad.

[2] Covey stayed in New Haven for four months, until he had translated the testimonies of three Mende-speaking captives in the Amistad civil trial in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1841.

Translated testimonies from the Africans participating in the mutiny revealed that the cook of the Amistad taunted the captives, telling them that the crew intended to kill and eat the prisoners.

The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in United States v. The Amistad that the captives were not slaves, but freeborn men and had legally defended themselves in gaining their freedom.