Translating for a Good Cause

Joseph Lavalles antislavery novel Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs (1789) and its two English translations (1790)*
Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov

Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki

In Joseph Lavalles Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs (1789) novelistic means are openly used to serve the abolitionist cause. The author announces in the preface that his aim is to make his readers love Black people. The novel was quite well received in France and it was translated into English twice the following year, first by Joseph Trapp and then by an anonymous translator. My article is based on a comparative analysis of some key passages containing abolitionist discourse in the source text and in the two target texts. I argue that the second English translator systematically made the novel more suitable for the abolitionist cause, by omitting or by modifying contradictory material found in the source text. Interestingly, it was this manipulated version of Lavalles novel that became popular among English-speaking readers. Keywords: slavery, abolitionism, antislavery, manipulation, Lavalle, Trapp, negro, Oroonoko, Itanoko

1.

Introduction

It is a given that translating never is a totally neutral or transparent activity. The very fact of choosing a text to be translated or retranslated can be a cultural or a political act. Translations are efficient means of importing cultural capital into the target culture where their main impact is felt (Lefevere 1998: 4142; Toury 1995: 29). Since a translation represents the source text to the target culture, even though it is rewritten by the translator, it is not only easy but also efficient to insert, omit or enforce such things as polemical elements. Owing to manipulation (Hermans 1985, Lefevere 1992),1 the translators or the commissioners ideology gets support from the foreign author, who might or might not subscribe to it.
Target 21:2 (2009), 308332. doi 10.1075/target.21.2.05tai issn 09241884 / e-issn 15699986 John Benjamins Publishing Company

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The texts that I will be discussing in this article, Joseph Lavalles antislavery novel Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs and its two English translations present an example of subtle translatorial manipulation. I argue that one of the translators has strengthened the abolitionist message of the source text, mainly by omitting contradictory material. Interestingly, it was this manipulated version of Lavalles novel that became popular among English-speaking readers. Bongie (2005) mentions a similar but much more systematic case of manipulation in the English translation of Victor Hugos Bug-Jargal from the year 1833; the translator omitted ambiguous material found in the source text and, sometimes departing radically from the original, adapted the translation to the requirements of abolitionist discourse. Both the Lavalle and the Hugo cases of manipulation indicate that translators were actively taking part in the abolitionist debate. Translations of literature concerned with slavery crossed the channel regularly (Carey, e-mail communication 11.9.2008). The main French antislavery texts were published relatively quickly in English, and most of them had more than one English translation in the eighteenth century. Montesquieus LEsprit des lois was published in French in 1748, and an English translation, The Spirit of Laws by Thomas Nugent, came out in 1750 (France 2000: 271). Claude Adrien Helvtiuss De lEsprit (1758) was translated the year after its publication (De lEsprit; or, essays on the mind, and its several faculties, 1759) (Eighteenth Century Collections Online=ECCO). Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgots Rflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses (1766, published separately in 1776) was first translated in 1788 (Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Riches) and a second time in 1793 (Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth) (ECCO, ER 11:223225). The Abb Raynals Histoire philosophique et politique des deux Indes (1770) had its first English translation in 1776 and a second, more influential one in 1782 (Boulukos 2008: 142 nt. 1). Jacques-Henri Bernadin de Saint-Pierres Voyage lle de France (1773) was first translated under the title A Voyage to the Island of Mauritius, (or, Isle of France) by John Parish (1775) (ECCO). The Marquis of Condorcets (alias Schwartzs) Rflections sur lesclavage des Ngres (1781) came out in English in 1788 (Reflections on the Slavery of Negroes) (ER 13:303304). French fictional texts with black and/or slave characters were also often translated into English. Voltaires Candide (1759) instantly had two English translations, one by William Rider and another by an anonymous translator (Lloyd 2000: 1478). Mme de Genliss short story Les esclaves included in her Veilles du chteau (1784) appeared in English in 1785 (The Slaves; or, the Benefit Repaid, in Tales of the Castle) (ECCO). As to Bernadin de Saint-Pierres Paul et Virginie (vol. 4 in his tudes de la Nature, 1788) it was an outstanding commercial success also in English translation. The first translation appeared already in 1788 and a second one in 1789 (possibly by D. Malthus).

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A third translation, by Helen Maria Williams, frequently reprinted and sometimes plagiarized, was published in 1795 and a fourth one, by Henry Hunter, appeared in 1796 (Garside et al. 2000: 448; Robinson 1989). Several other translations, published in Britain and also in France followed (Robinson 1989). Nor should political pamphlets be forgotten. Translation played a part in the co-operation of British and French abolitionists, who had close ties from the 1780s to the mid-nineteenth century (Duprat 1993: 115124,188; Jennings 1992; Jennings 2000: 2). The French Socit des Amis des Noirs (1788) was modeled on the London Society of the Slave Trade (1787); British abolitionists in turn supported the French with funding and also by having several British pamphlets translated into French. Similar support was also afforded to translations from English into other European languages. Turley (1991: 49) mentions that the English antislavery movement actively used translations of existing newspaper articles and pamphlets to spread abolitionist propaganda in Europe in the 1820s and 1830s. 2. Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs and its two English versions Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs was published in French in 1789, a year when the abolition campaign was especially lively in Britain and had also forcibly started in France (Carey 2005/2007: 69, 179; Duprat 1993: 118128). The author was Captain Joseph Lavalle (17471816),2 the Marquis of Bois-Robert, whose oriental tale Ccile, fille dAchmet III, empereur des Turcs (1787) had been translated into English in 1788 (Garside et al. 2000: 443; Qurard 1830: 630631). Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs aroused attention in Britain soon after its publication. In the winter of 1790 it was mentioned in the Critical Review, in a section dealing with the recent pro- and antislavery discussion in France. The writer, quoting a Colonist of St. Domingo and the Marquis of Condorcet, mentions Lavalles novel as the only work of fiction in this context:
[O]ur present author has drawn into action, by a fictitious story, what he considers as the true character of the African. This man, says he, has virtues, and is amiable: if these virtues are those of his nation, we ought to respect it; this is the plan and object of my work. The story is interesting, and, notwithstanding some occasional improbabilities, well conducted. The negro is painted in very flattering colours; but many of his advantages are supposed to be owing to Dumont, a Frenchman, shipwrecked on the coast. The whole is interspersed with numerous anecdotes of the knavery, the avarice, the cruelty, and the perfidy of the whites, contrasted with the confidence, the liberality, the courage, the candour, and the patience of the blacks. (CR 69: 327, 328.)

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Two different English translations of this novel were published in 1790: The Negro as there are Few White Men and The Negro Equalled by Few Europeans. According to Saillant (1995: 409, 414), the first of the two translations was The Negro as there are Few White Men, which seems to have gone through only one edition. The text was done by a professional translator, Joseph Trapp,3 who also translated Dietrich Heinrich Stoevers Life of Linnus (1794) and some novels (Garside et al. 2000: 674, 681682, 694). According to John Saillants analysis (1995: 410411, 413, 414), Trapp introduced some homoerotic aspects into the text by emphasising the main character Itanokos sexual appeal to white men.4 My own reading of Trapps translation does not support this analysis.5 Trapps translation is as subtly homoerotic as the source text; neither contains overt references to sexuality nor any allusions to the myth of the black penis, as Friedman claims (2001: 118).6 The second English translation of Lavalles novel is entitled The Negro Equalled by Few Europeans, and it became the most widely read version. It is the only one of the two translations included in the prestigious ECCO-collection. This translation was briefly complimented by an anonymous critic of the Critical Review in October 1790 (Garside et al. 2000: 510): We have already given a short account of this novel in one of our foreign sketches: it is only necessary at present to observe, that it is translated with care and accuracy, and affords a pleasing variety in this department of our reading (CR 70:454). The translation also received favourable criticism from the reviewer of the English Review, who praised the novel (The story of this virtuous African is well told, and the description of the cruel and wanton barbarities practised on the sons and daughters of slavery appears to be written by one that was no stranger to the detail of their distress), but found the translation at places very unidiomatic (ER 17:5052, quote 50). The translation was reissued in Dublin in 1791 and in Philadelphia in 1801 and also appeared in parts in the periodical American Museum, or Universal Magazine throughout the year 1791 (Garside et al. 2000: 510; Isani 1979: 372; Saillant 1995: 409; Seeber 1937: 175). Excerpts from this novel were also published in Ladys Magazine (XXI, June-September 1790) and in an Irish miscellany, called Hibernian Magazine in 1790 (August-November) (Garside et al. 2000: 510; Grieder 1975: 101). The translator of this second English version remains anonymous. The text has sometimes been erroneously ascribed to the black poetess Phillis Wheatley (see e.g., Locke 1901; Kadish & Massardier-Kennedy 1994), who died in 1784.7 When the two English translations are compared, it is clear that they are not by the same translator, because they are written in different styles and dialects.8 The first translation, made by J.A. Trapp, follows the source text very closely. It is dedicated to William Wilberforce, a young Yorkshire MP, who in 1789 was vigorously fighting for the abolition of the slave trade in the British Parliament (Carey 2005/2007: 156 173). The translation also contains a translators prefatory address, which shows

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that Trapp had a high opinion of the source text and that he translated it out of philanthropy: Blest with some feelings for my fellow creatures, proud to call myself a citizen of the world, I only aim to concur with the liberality of the times, and to join the general ferment, which agitates the bosoms of the humane, who scorn at the disnatured wretch that deals in human flesh (Trapp 1790:I, vvi). Even though French authors prefaces and footnotes were not automatically translated into English in that period (Grieder 1975: 33), Trapp did translate the authors preface, which openly announces his abolitionist goal and which was omitted from the second translation. Grieder (1975: 33) suggests that therefore the English reader of the second translation was unaware, for example, that Lavalle intended Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs to be impassioned propaganda for la plus noble des causes, la plus intressante sans doute que lon puisse plaider au tribunal de lhumanit celle des Ngres. 9 Grieder (1975: 33) further observes that eliminating this kind of prefaces protected the British public from immoderate French sentimentality. This seems indeed to be one of the global strategies10 of the second translator, even though, as Carey (2005/2007: 2) points out, sentiment in itself was not a pejorative term to British eighteenth-century writers. It should be noted that the second translation is also relatively faithful to the source text, despite the fact that the translator has transedited, i.e., improved the text, mainly by condensing it (Stetting 1989; see Chesterman 1997: 112).11 As a result, this translation is more compact than the original. It does not contain a translators preface or any other hints that could help in identifying the translator. It also has far fewer metatextual references than either the original or Trapps translation.12 Thus, the authors and the narrators presence are less evident in this text, even though the antislavery message is equally clear. It is not known why two separate translations were made of the same text in the very same year. Was it pure coincidence? Were they intended for different audiences? The most likely reason seems to have been that antislavery texts sold well and authors could make a quick profit by jumping on the abolitionist bandwagon (Carey, e-mail communication 11.9.2008). Why was the second translation of Lavalles novel more successful than the first one? Some facts concerning the publication of the two texts might be helpful here. Both English versions were published first in London (Garside et al. 2000: 510; Saillant 1995: 408409). The cover of The Negro as there are Few White Men indicates that it was printed for the author (i.e., Lavalle or the translator J. Trapp?) and was sold by seventeen booksellers in London13 (for their names and addresses, see Corpus texts, below). A short list of subscribers appears at the end of the novel.14 The scarcity of these subscribers, only 67, indicates that only a small number of copies were made of this book.15 We can conclude at this point that Trapps translation was probably a modest self-publication, partly financed by subscription. It would thus have easily

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been eclipsed by its rival The Negro Equalled by Few Europeans that was printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, one of the most successful and famous publishing houses in London. According to Raven (2007: 175), the owner, George Robinson (1736 1801), was interested in reform and political issues, especially in his later years. In 1793 Robinson was fined for selling Thomas Paines The Rights of Man. Interestingly, the Robinson publishing house also had a share in the Critical Review (Raven 2007: 175), which published the above-mentioned reviews of Lavalles novel and its second, anonymous translation. In addition, Robinsons publishing house owned the Ladys Magazine,16 in which excerpts of this translation were republished. Consequently, the second translation probably succeeded partly thanks to patronage17 (Lefevere 1992), i.e., to the influence of its publishing house. As regards the status of the second translation, it is quite revealing that it was published together with a work attributed to Phillis Wheatley, the black traditions first poet in English, to use Gates phrase (Gates 1985: 7). According to Saillant (1995: 407, 409), Lavalles novel seems not only to have influenced American ideas about slavery, but also created a model for later antislavery writing, which often had as a central theme the sentimental friendship between a black man and a white man. The translation thus seems to have been more influential in the English-speaking world than the original volume in France, even though it was certainly not unique of its kind; for example, hundreds of fictional antislavery texts appeared in Britain in the late eighteenth century (Carey 2005/2007: 50, 196). It is true that Lavalles novel was also quite well received in France (Hoffman 1973: 87). Two subsequent French editions appeared in 1791 and in year III of the Republic. The novel was also adapted for the stage (Martin et al. 1973: 339.) However, nowhere is this novel mentioned as a particularly important text of French abolitionist fictional writing (see e.g., Ehrard 2008: 8889; Hoffman 1973; Mercier 1962: 186; Seeber 1937: 175178). In the following section, I will give a general outline of the source text and the two target texts. Special attention will be given to key passages containing abolitionist discourse that have been subjected to more detailed translation analysis.

3. Analysis 3.1 Structure and style in Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs The narration of Lavalles lengthy three-volume tale is in the first person and takes the form of an autobiographical slave narrative. The Senegalian-born Itanoko relates retrospectively his happy childhood and youth in Africa, his education by a Frenchman and his love for his mentors daughter, his transportation on

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a slave-ship after a tribal war, his captivity and other Africans sufferings in slavery in St. Domingo (now Haiti) and finally his liberation and reunion with his lost beloved, the half-African, half-French Amlie. There are also some interpolated stories in the first-person narration by other characters, the longest of which is situated approximately in the middle of the novel.18 At the end of each volume several polemical endnotes containing additional information and slave anecdotes condemn racism and slavery. Like so many other eighteenth-century abolitionist texts (Harrow 2004: 82), Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs is a sentimental novel with a highly complicated plot. At first, a modern reader may react to the contradiction between its melodramatic style and its serious abolitionist message. However, according to Carey (2005/2007: 1, 7 et passim), sentimental rhetoric is characteristic of most abolitionist (and also proslavery) writing of the late eighteenth century.19 Antislavery writers addressed their readers humanity through their sentiment, fully aware that they demanded to be moved by the authors they read (Carey 2005/2007: 4849, quote 49, original emphasis). This seems to be true also of Lavalle, who deliberately chose the sentimental novel to promote the abolitionist cause. The author says in his preface that his aim is to make the blacks popular, and for this purpose the novel is a suitable form, as every body reads novels (Trapp 1790:I, xi). Lavalles novel was thus propaganda intended for a wide audience. Lavalle uses textual strategies in his novel that are typical for eighteenthcentury abolitionist texts and that Carey (2005/2007: 3743) calls sentimental rhetoric. Itanoko is a prototypal sentimental hero, both a victim of wrongs done by others and an exemplary figure with a highly developed sensibility: weeping, sighing, and the almost superhuman ability to attend to the needs of others. (Carey 2005/2007: 41, 74, 76). He is unable to commit the slightest misdemeanour and twice even saves the life of Urban, the slave trader who had initially kidnapped him from Africa. The novels readers are also cajoled by other tactics of sentimental rhetoric: the use of sentimental arguments (e.g., that all humans are alike because they have the same kinds of feelings) and sentimental parables (didactic and emotionally engaging stories that hint at a great truth by showing a relatively small action). False sensibility is likewise rejected, for example in anecdotes where slave owners are more humane towards animals than towards their own slaves (Carey 2005/2007: 3740, 114115, quote 114).20 The whole is combined with cooler intellectual arguments concerning the benefits of abolishing slavery or with shocking details of the conditions of African slaves. This belongs to the strategies of sentimental rhetoric, and Carey calls it the emotional subversion of the intellect: With the intellect subverted by the emotions, the reader, it is hoped, will quickly accept the argument before enquiring too minutely into the feasibility of the scheme suggested (Carey 2005/2007: 3643, 54, 56, 67, quote 56). Direct

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appeals against slavery are frequently made to the white readers of this novel (to Europeans in the anonymous translation). 3.2 Lavalles novel and Oroonoko Seeber (1936: 953, 956958) has pointed out that Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs bears some resemblance to Aphra Behns Oroonoko (1688). The novels French translation Oronoko (1745) by Pierre-Antoine de La Place was extremely popular in France during the eighteenth century and could have influenced Lavalle, as well as many other French antislavery novelists (Dhuicq 2008: 9, 16; Seeber 1936: 953, 959). According to Haskins Gonthier (2008), the French Oronoko might even have had an impact on the French philosophical antislavery debate, which opened in effect with Montesquieus LEsprit des Lois (1748). As Carey observes (2005/2007: 50), Behns original does not exploit sentimental rhetoric. However, La Places translation is sentimental fiction (Haskins Gonthier 2008: 217218). Many events of the plot have been modified not to mention the outcome of the novel, which is a happy ending21 (Dhuicq 2008: 1415; Haskins Gonthier 2008: 214; Streeter 1936: 3031). Elements of a romantic triangle22 have also been emphasized, and the style is much more melodramatic, especially in the second part of the translation. The result is close to a roman damour with abolitionist overtones. Seeber (1936: 956, 957958) mentions several similarities between Oroonoko and Lavalles novel: the main characters names Oronoko vs. Itanoko, their Adonic (and not too African) beauty, their royal birth, their early education by a Frenchman, their love of an exceptionally charming woman and their enslavement through the treachery of a slave ships captain, who first pretended to be friendly. Both novels also include an episode in a seraglio.23 Even the details concerning the main female characters in the novels are alike and here Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs recalls La Places translation more than Behns original volume. Both Imoinda and Amlie are separated from their lovers and sexually persecuted by a young, threatening man before they join their lovers at the novels happy end. Last but not least, both La Places Imoinda and Lavalles Amlie are half French (Behn 2008: 40; Lavalle 1791:I, 1718). Thus, Lavalles novel seems to have a hypertextual relationship (Genette 1982), that is a derivative relationship to Oronoko, and indirectly also to Behns original. 3.3 Abolitionist discourse in the source text and the translations Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs has the principal characteristics of abolitionist propaganda, as Brantlinger defines it (1985: 187189). First, it depicts in detail the horrors of slavery and the slave trade. According to Hoffmann (1973: 88), the

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description of a slave ship at the beginning of the novel is particularly realistic. Slaverys most striking atrocities are revealed in the endnotes, most of which were also translated. Both translators have kept, for example, endnote 13 of the first volume of the original, in which the English are said to treat their slaves more brutally than the French and where a strong appeal is made to the English, to remember that negroes are men (Anonymous 1790:II, endnote 1, 248250, quote 250; Trapp 1790:I, endnote 11, 219220). Trapp included more endnotes than the anonymous translator, who for some reason (a pressing deadline?) translated only three endnotes in the third volume. Example 1 contains an excerpt from an endnote that describes the slaves conditions on a slave ship.24 This endnote is similar in Trapps translation:
(1) Trapp: However revolting this description may appear, it is yet mitigated. To tell the truth exactly, they are linked together two by two with shackles, and never unfettered during the whole passage. In general, all the negroes arrive in the islands extenuated with hunger and thirst, their limbs benumbed with the weight of irons, and often eaten-up with scurvy: adding to these bodily sufferings the moral ones, proceeding from the privation of their country, the most cruel of all evils for a negro, and their opinion, absurd indeed, but no less torturing, that they are transported but to be devoured: the reader may have some idea of the pains which excruciate them during a long passage: they arrive! to find what? labors, torments, and men proud of their knowledge, who call themselves humane. (Trapp 1790:I, 116 [sic, 216].)

In the second translation the tone becomes more empathetic and even more sentimental, owing to slight additions (such as from their homes, these unhappy creatures) and modifications:
Anonymous: This description, horrid as it may appear, is yet considerably softened. In fact, the negroes are chained two together on board of the ships with heavy fetters of iron, from which they are never relieved during the whole voyage. . The negroes, in general, arrive at the islands emaciated by hunger and thirst; their limbs benumbed by the weight of their fetters; and often eaten up by the scurvy: add to these evils, the anguish which they endure in being torn from their country, (the cruelest of all evils for a negro), and the excruciating, though absurd, opinion which they entertain, that they are transported from their homes to be eaten by other human beings, and some idea will be formed of the torment which wounds these unhappy creatures during a long voyage. They arrive at the port: what do they find? Extreme labour! tortures! and men, proud of their intelligence, and who call themselves humane! (Anonymous 1790:I, 215216, emphasis added.)

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The voice that speaks in these endnotes does not seem to be that of the narrator Itanoko because it is said here that the description of the slave ship had been toned down in the main narrative. Many of the endnotes seem to function in the novel as additional factual evidence, as some sort of inartificial and yet not concrete proofs (Carey 2005/2007: 27, 36)25 that are added to make the novel more convincing. Seeber (1937: 175176) points out that Lavalle had documented himself thoroughly in the literature on the slavery question. In the endnotes, authors such as Abb Prvost, Pre Labat, Mifflin, Charlevoix, Voltaire, Buffon, Las Casas and Brenger are discussed. Another characteristic of abolitionist propaganda (Brantlinger 1985: 189; Carey 2005/2007: 48; Isani 1979: 365, 371) is the opposition between an innocent, Edenic Africa, the land of noble savages, and corrupt Europe, which is personified by greedy slave traders. In Lavalles novel all the black characters, even the criminals, are good, whereas the white characters, even the most sympathetic, are imperfect. Itanoko even states openly the moral superiority of black people in a long narrative intervention (Example 2) that opens with a paralipsis:26
(2) Si je ne savois pas que mes lecteurs seront tous des Europens, je me hasarderois, avant daller plus loin, faire ici la comparaison des vertus des Blancs avec les vertus des Ngres ; mais ce rapprochement, quil ne mest pas permis de faire, nchappera point lhomme juste ; il verra quavec un gal amour pour la justice, dans le nombre des tres vertueux qui jusquici ont paru sur la scne, les Noirs ont toujours fait plus que lon nattendoit, & les Blancs moins quils ne sembloient promettre (Lavalle 1789: II, 71, emphasis added.) In Trapps translation: Had I known [sic, translation error; if I did not know] that all my readers would be Europeans, I would have ventured before I proceed any farther, to compare here the virtues of the Whites, with those of the Blacks; but this parallel, which I have no right to draw, will not pass the notice of the just; his impartial love of justice will see, that among the number of virtuous beings, which appeared till now on the stage of this world, the Blacks have always done more than was expected, and the Whites less than they seemed to promise . (Trapp 1790: II, 50, emphasis added.)

The motive for this kind of contrast might be to raise feelings of guilt in the white readers of the novel, who had the leisure time to read an antislavery novel while hundreds of thousands of African slaves were suffering in St. Domingo.27 Were the readers themselves not conformists similar to Urbans son Gernance (Ferdinand), who felt for his friend Itanoko but was unable to act against his father and set him free?

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Abolitionist portrayals of Africans, well-meaning as they were, tended to be patronising and disrespectful (Brantlinger 1985: 189). This is also true of Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs. As Boulukos (2008: 208) argues about Lavalles novel, the radical moves made by the text are countered by reactionary ones. Even the black narrators attitude towards certain primitive African customs is highly derogatory. In creating Itanoko, who speaks perfect French and has been educated and Christianised by a Frenchman (Dumont, Amlies father), Lavalle no doubt aimed to create a black hero with whom his white readers could identify (see also Seeber 1936: 957). In addition, Itanoko, like a number of other black heroes, is from a distinguished family (Carey 2005/2007: 48; Hoffman 1973: 89; Isani 1979: 363), which, as Nussbaum (2003: 190) points out in discussing Oroonoko, makes the condition of a slave seem even more unjust. However, this means that Itanokos point of view is not that of an ordinary slave, nor even really African. He himself depicts Africans as Others. Also his eloquent idiolect differs strongly from the simple language of ordinary slaves. In Example 3, Itanoko narrates the adventure of his African foster-brother Otourou, who hid in a tree from an enemy tribe. It is mainly Otourous European education that saved him from peril both in the original and in Trapps translation:
(3) Lavalle : Dans la position o se trouvoit Otourou, la moindre circonstance est inquitante ; & un jeu du hazard, ou plutt un vnement tout naturel, lauroit perdu, si sa prsence desprit, & les instructions quil avoit puises dans le commerce de Dumont, ne lavoient sauv. Les vrits qui avoient germ dans son cur, lui avoient appris aussi-bien qu moi, mpriser les superstitions des Ngres de lAfrique ; & il fit adroitement usage de leur crdulit pour se tirer dembarras. Otourou, qui ne savoit plus ce quil faisoit, scrie dune voix forte, loignez-vous, profanes, & fuyez mon courroux ; respectez-moi ! Je suis la ftiche (4) de cette fort ; jai puni ces mprisables oiseaux, parce quils mont insult ; je vous punirai de mme, si vous troublez mon repos. Leffet de la foudre est moins prompt que celui que produisit ces paroles. Cette foule imbcille recule en arrire ; les uns fuient, leffroi peint sur le front ; les autres se prosternent avec respect ; un plus grand nombre lve les bras au Ciel pour linvoquer ; tous jurent que larbre leur a parl ; tant est forte sur les hommes ignorans la superstition. Otourou dlivr dun si grand pril prouve une joie inexprimable ; du fond du cur il dit : Je te remercie, Dieu de Dumont ! tu mas sauv. Devenu plus calme il sapplaudit de labsurdit des ennemis quil a disperss, &, divinit invisible & nouvelle, reoit en souriant les hommages dune multitude pouvante. (Lavalle 1789:I, 4546, 5052, emphasis added.)

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Trapp: In such a situation as Otooroos, the least circumstance must cause uneasiness; and pure chance, or rather a very natural event would have undone him, had not his presence of mind, and the instructions he had drawn from his intercourse with Dumont, saved him. The truths which germinated in his heart, had taught him, as well as me, to despise the superstitions of the African negroes; and he adroitly managed their credulity to extricate himself from difficulties. Otooroo, who knew no longer what to do, cried, quite on a sudden, and with a loud voice Be gone, ye prophane, fly before mine anger, and learn to respect me. I am the Fetish (3) of this forest; who has punished those contemptible birds for having insulted me; I will punish you, in the same manner, if you farther disturb my rest. A thunderbolt cannot have more effect than these words the imbecile crouds step backwards; some struck with terror betake themselves to flight; others fall down with awe; a greater number lift their hands up to heaven to implore its mercy; every one declares the tree has spoke, so powerful is the ascendancy of superstition on ignorant men. Otooroo, delivered from so great a jeopardy, feels an inexpressive joy, and said, with all his heart, I thank thee, God of Dumont! thou hast saved me. And when he was a little more composed, he applauded himself for the absurdity of the enemies he had dispersed, and as an invisible and new Divinity, receives smiling the homages of a terrified multitude. (Trapp 1790:I, 29, 3233, emphasis added.)

In the anonymous translation, it is only Otourous presence of mind that saves him. The translator has also omitted the description in which Otourou receives sacrifices from his enemies with a scornful smile and thanks Dumonts God (however, also in this translation, in a passage right before this excerpt, he has prayed to Dumonts God not to abandon him, see Anonymous 1790, I, 47). In spite of the modifications, the attitude towards savages is condescending:
Anonymous: In the situation of Otourou the least circumstance is alarming, and an accident had inevitably lost him, but for his presence of mind. [W]hen Otourou (whose cool courage never forsook him but for a moment) availed himself of the superstition of these negroes, and cried out, with all the force he could give his voice, Depart, profane wretches, and fly my fury. I am the deity (Fetiche) of this forest (3). I have punished these despicable birds, because they have insulted me. I will punish you also, if you disturb my repose. The thunderbolt is not swifter than the effect which these words produced. Affright was pourtrayed on the countenance of this silly multitude. Some took flight, others prostrated themselves on the earth, all swore the tree had spoken to them. (Anonymous 1790:I, 4748, emphasis added.)

Otourou is less religious in the second translation than in the original or in Trapps translation, and he thus becomes more an opposite of the sentimental Itanoko

320 Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov

(Boulukos 2008: 211) than he really is in the source text. In the French original he is baptised by Father Bruno, an elderly white clergyman, who helps Itanoko and Otourou in St. Domingo. Is the modification of Otourous character deliberate, caused perhaps by the demands of verisimilitude? This way he resembles Behns Oroonoko, who dismissed Christian morality (Haskins Gonthier 2008: 211). In the source text Otourou remains savage despite having been Christianised. Having been suspected by Dumont of kidnapping Amlie, he leaves France at the end of the novel, unable to forgive Dumont and desiring revenge. Example 4 contains the scene where Itanoko maladroitly reveals Dumonts insulting suspicions to Otourou. It is quite significant that in Lavalles novel and Trapps translation Otorous rancour is described as a feature of a typical African, whereas in the anonymous translation it becomes merely an idiosyncrasy, owing to the translators modification:
(4) Lavalle : Le soir quand nous fmes seuls, il me demanda une explication. Je ne balanai point le satisfaire. Imprudent ! joubliai pour un moment que javais affaire un Ngre. (Lavalle 1789:III, 143, emphasis added.) Trapp: At night, being alone, he expostulated with me upon the matter; and I gave him a most satisfactory account. Imprudent me! who one moment forgot that it was a Negro I had to do with. (Trapp 1790:III, 91, emphasis added.) Anonymous: In the evening, we being together alone, he demanded an explanation of his unfortunate affair, and I did not scruple to give it him without reserve. Imprudent ! For a moment, I had forgotten Otourou. (Anonymous 1790:III, 228229, emphasis added.)

Otourous rage is also more formidable in the anonymous translation, because Itanoko writes that it almost arrested my blood in its course, whereas in the original (p. 144) and in Trapps translation (p. 92) he speaks with an air of coldness, (dun air froid). This enforces the savage-like image of Otourou in this text. The longest omission in the anonymous translation is especially noteworthy. It is an eight-page monologue by a sympathetic white character named Dumnil, who later turns out to be Dumonts lost brother living in St. Domingo. In his imaginary speech, which recalls Sarah Scotts The History of Sir George Ellison (1766) and Henry Mackenzies Julia de Roubign (1777) (cf. Carey 2005/2007: 5253, 64), Dumnil explains in detail to Itanoko how he himself would deal with the slavery problem. Even though he argues strongly against slavery, he seems to support amelioration, not the total abolition of slavery. Dumnil tells Itanoko he would gradually bring an end to slavery, by reforming the legislation affecting the white men in the colonies. However, the freedom that in the end he offers to black people seems to have more to do with serfdom than with independence (see also Ehrard 2008: 89): the people would not even be paid for their work. Dumnil also

Translating for a Good Cause 321

seems to believe in the natural superiority and dominance of the white race, as can be seen from Example 5. Here Dumnil describes the final stage in the emancipation of black slaves. They would still keep on working for white people, not as slaves but out of duty based on natural law:
(5) [This is the end of Dumnils imaginary speech to white slave owners that he pronounces to Itanoko:] Ainsi devenus leurs seigneurs naturels, plus vous serez humains avec eux [les Noirs], plus ils sattacheront vous. Ils vous donneront leur travail, non en esclaves, mais par devoir. Lentretien quils recevront de la caisse publique en est le prix, & ds-lors ce nest plus une servitude, mais un change de besoins rciproques fond sur la loi naturelle. (Lavalle 1789:I, 222, emphasis added.) Trapp: Thus being become their natural lords, the more humanely you demean yourselves towards them [the Negroes], the more faithful will they be to you. They shall grant you their labor, not as slaves, but by duty. The maintenance they receive from the public funds is the reward for it, and henceforth it is no longer a bondage, but a commutation of reciprocal wants, grounded upon the law of nature. (Trapp 1790:I, 145, emphasis added.)

The anonymous translator has omitted Dumnils entire speech as well as Itanokos response to it. Because Itanoko thanks Dumnil for his noble ideas, this utopia does not seem to be contrary to the authors opinions. Is Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs then an amelioration novel? This is, of course, speculation, but Lavalle himself might have been an ameliorationist, whereas the anonymous translator and his commissioner supported immediate abolition (of the slave trade, at least). It is true, however, that Itanoko frees his own slaves as soon as he becomes their master in St. Domingo and offers them the opportunity of returning to Africa (Lavalle 1789:II, 26). Yet not one of them takes this opportunity (see also Boulukos 2008: 212, who has analysed Lavalles novel using the anonymous translation, i.e., the one lacking Dumnils speech, as a corpus). The former slaves end up living in a system quite similar to Dumnils utopia: their conditions are considerably improved, but they continue working for Itanoko, who calls them mes Ngres, my Negroes. At the very end Itanoko brings them back to Africa, after selling his plantation (Lavalle 1789:III, 185186; Anonymous 1790:III, 260261). The abolitionist message in antislavery novels was not necessarily unambiguous. Carey (2005/2007: 53) concludes in his analysis of Sarah Scotts The History of Sir Scott Ellison (1766) that the novel is both an antislavery novel and a novel of amelioration because it manages to keep its options open. There is similar equivocality in Lavalles novel, which tends to disappear in the second translation.

322 Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov

In addition to modifications and omissions which can always be the results of hasty deadlines or editorial decisions there are also some more significant changes and one translators note in the second translation that support my argument. Example 6 contains a change in the text made by the anonymous translator, who has also condensed the text. In the quoted passage Itanoko, who with Otourou is about to be sentenced to death for Urbans murder, which neither of them has committed (on the contrary, Itanoko saved Urbans life, although he died later), says what he believes to be a last farewell to his white friends Honorine and Gernance:
(6) O mes amis ! vous vous affligez ! Un peu plutt, un peu plus tard, nauroit-il pas fallu toujours nous sparer ? Le ciel bnira votre union ; une nombreuse postrit fera sans doute le charme de votre vieillesse. Comptez [sic] mes malheurs vos enfans ; cest un hritage que je leur lgue : il est plus prcieux que les richesses du monde ; il les garantira de linjustice. Vivez heureux. Puissent, pour le bonheur de lAfrique, tous les Blancs vous ressembler un jour ! (Lavalle 1789:II, 137138, emphasis added.) Trapp: O my friends, you grieve! a little sooner, or a little later, must we not have parted for ever? Heaven will shower blessings on your union; and a numerous posterity will undoubtedly charm your old days. Relate my disaster to your children; I leave it to them as a legacy: it is more precious than the riches of the world; and will keep them from injustice. Live and be happy. May, for the good of Africa, all Whites be like you one day! (Trapp 1790:II, 95, emphasis added.) Anonymous: Oh my friends, cried I, you afflict yourselves! A little sooner or a little later, must we not, sometime, have separated? Ah! esteem my unhappy countrymen as your children! It is an heritage which I bequeath them; and it shall be more precious to them than a world: for it shall protect them from injustice. May all Europeans, for the happiness of Africa, one day resemble you. (Anonymous 1790:II, 187188, emphasis added.)

In the source text and in Trapps translation, Itanoko asks his friends to relate his sufferings to their future children. In the anonymous translation, he mentions no offspring, but entreats the couple to treat their slaves as their own children. Thus, slaves are more important than offspring and this farewell becomes latently accusatory. Furthermore, the anonymous translation also contains three notes by the translator, in which he or she disagrees with what some characters or the narrator says in the novel, whereas in Trapps translation, there are only informative and neutral translators notes. The last of the anonymous translators notes concerns the slave trade. This footnote (Example 7) is a comment on how Itanokos friend

Translating for a Good Cause 323

Gernance (or Ferdinand) has inherited his fortune, which, at this point in the plot, he seems to have lost. According to the anonymous translator (T.), a fortune made in the slave trade is worthless:
(7) Lavalle : Ah ! Il est des momens o la vertu meme est pnible. Je lprouvai. (Lavalle 1789 : III, 150.) Anonymous: There are moments in which even virtue is painful*. I then felt it. * Never: Itanoko deceived himself. It was not his virtue that was painful. He secretly lamented Ferdinands loss: this was his error, and this was his torture. Considering how the fortune had been gained, the loss of it was no evil; and, through whatever channel it might have come to Ferdinand, it was not worth a thought. T. (Anonymous 1790: III, 235.)

This vehement footnote makes it clear that the anonymous translator had stronger opinions about the slave trade and slavery than did the French narrator. It also seems to corroborate my hypothesis that the above-mentioned transformations arose from a global strategy: to render Lavalles novel more radical and explicit and thus more efficient in the campaign against slavery. 4. To conclude: The revealing last words Sentimental antislavery writing of the late eighteenth century, such as abolitionist novels, was ultimately not successful. The slave trade was abolished in Britain only in 1807, and after the French Revolution and the violent slave revolutions in e.g. St. Domingo (17901803), abolitionists started to become associated with radicalism and violence (Carey 2005/2007: 913, 186189). However, before these events and even after, antislavery novels certainly must have influenced people on the local level and made them more aware of the wrongs of slavery. Authors and translators themselves must have been optimistic about the effect of their texts upon their readers, since a multitude of antislavery texts was published in the late eighteenth century (Carey 2005/2007: 196). This optimism is also apparent in Lavalles novel, which ends with Itanokos enthusiastic call for action, directed at his white audience. The manifesto is three pages long and addresses general issues of the slavery question, such as the causes of slavery (the avarice of white men), Europeans injustice and prejudice towards Africans, and the necessity of ending slavery immediately. The tone is by turns accusatory, hopeful and appealing. Itanoko, confident that his virtuous life will be rewarded in the next world, emphasises that he will not seek revenge on white people when the roles have been reversed after resurrection.28 Here he seems to hint that black people, once liberated, will not be ungrateful and

324 Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov

barbaric towards whites, an argument that is made repeatedly in the novel. Itanoko laments that three centuries have passed in shameful moral degradation and prevented not only Africans but also Europeans from finding true happiness, an argument characteristic of the abolition movement (Carey 2005/2007: 182). Itanoko then hopes that his own era will make a difference, thanks to the progress in philosophy, humanity and even religion and general knowledge. The end of Itanokos speech (Example 8) is a very strong appeal for the brotherhood of man:
(8) Lavalle : O Blancs ! Htez-vous, saisissez linstant o [sic] la postrit vous en ravira la gloire, o [sic] le retour de la barbarie en reculera lpoque. Ne mettez point au hazard lintrt des gnrations futures. Ne calculez plus, mais agissez. Ceignez le front de votre sicle dun diadme de bienfaisance, qui lui assure lempire sur les mmorables rvolutions consacres dans le temple des annales du monde. Brisez ce mur dairain dont le prjug sapplaudit depuis tant de lustres. Brisez-le ! il vous cache des hommes ; il vous cache des frres. (Lavalle 1789:III, 189190.)

Not surprisingly, Trapp translates Itanokos whole speech scrupulously including the quoted passage:
Trapp: O Whites! Hasten and lay hold of the present moment, lest posterity either deprive you of that glory, or the return of barbarous age retard its epoch. Do not leave to hazard the interest of future generations. Prefer acting to calculations. Crown the front of your age with the diadem of beneficence, which will give it a superiority over the memorable revolutions consecrated in the temple of the annals of the world. Demolish that ironwall, for which prejudice applauds itself so many lustres. Demolish it! it conceals from you men; it conceals brothers. (Trapp 1790:III, 124.)

The anonymous translator condenses the speech, leaving out the causes of slavery (mentioned elsewhere in the translation). The speech is approximately two pages long in this version. The very end, however, is quite similar to Lavalles original and to Trapps translation, even though there are fewer repetitions and the style is more energetic:
Anonymous: Ah, hasten Europeans! Seize the instant, or the return of barbarity will remove the noble epoch, posterity will snatch the glory from you! Refer not the happiness of future times to miserable calculations, but act. Surround the front of your age with the diadem of beneficence, which shall assure to it an empire over every memorable revolution consecrated in the Temple of Time! Break down the walls of brass which prejudice has reared! Sweep it from your sight! It conceals men, it conceals brethren, from you. (Anonymous 1790:III, 263.)

Translating for a Good Cause 325

It is symptomatic of the two translations analysed in this article that Trapps version ends with the words brothers just as in the original (des frres), whereas the anonymous versions last words are from you, addressing the reader directly. Trapps version, which in general is sometimes close to being a word-for-word translation, is centred more on the author, and no special effort has been made to adapt it to the target culture. This might be one of the reasons for its failure; contemporary readers, the few who had access to this text, may have found it long and not very reader-friendly. The anonymous translation by contrast is more reader-oriented. It was knowingly transedited and manipulated, and consequently it seems to have fulfilled its purpose to some degree. The Negro Equalled by few Europeans was read both in Britain and in America and might even have influenced later American antislavery writing, as Saillant suggests (1995: 407, 409). If this is true, Lavalles novel and its second English translation as well as La Places Oronoko are links in a fascinating chain of literary interference (Even-Zohar 1990) that reaches from Behns novel to American antislavery writing.

Notes
* I would like to express my gratitude to Brycchan Carey, who gave me invaluable feedback on my article. I am also grateful to Chris Bongie, Andrew Chesterman, John Gilmore, Kai Mikkonen, the participants of the MonAKO seminar and my colleagues at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies for their useful comments. Many thanks also to Glenda Goss for correcting my English and my textual inconsistencies. 1. Manipulation: adjusting the source message in order to make it more compatible with a given ideology (MonAKO Glossary, s.v. manipulation). 2. I have tried to discover whether Lavalle was a member of the Socit des Amis des Noirs but have so far been unsuccessful. His name is not on the list of the members of the society included in C. Perrouds (1916) article La Socit des Amis des Noirs (Rvolution franaise 69, 122147). 3. The title page identifies Trapp with the letters A.M., probably meaning that he held a Master of Arts degree (John Gilmore, e-mail communication 28.6.2007). Trapp is probably Joseph Trapp, born 1749 (?), who published Proceedings of the French National Convention on the Trial of Louis XVI (Brycchan Carey, e-mail communication 11.9.2008). 4. The speculations concerning Lavalles own sexual orientation might have influenced this interpretation. Some authors (e.g. Mercier 1962: 186; Qurard 1830: 630) claim that Lavalle was sent to the Bastille because of his (alleged) homosexuality and was freed by the mob on 14 July 1789. However, his name is not mentioned in Franz Funck-Brentanos (1903) Les lettres de cachet Paris : tude suivie dune liste de prisonniers de la Bastille 16591789. (Paris: Imprimerie nationale) (Sylvie Nicolas/ French National Archives, e-mail communication, 1.2.2007).

326 Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov 5. Saillant (1995: 413) claims, for example: As several white men examine Itanoko, Urban leers, in what is probably an eighteenth-century version of a phallic joke, He will be taller yet. Here is the passage in question in all three texts (emphasis added). Urban is drinking to the health of Itanoko, who has just recovered from a serious illness. Itanoko is fully dressed and sitting at Urbans table. Lavalle: DUrban tire son lieutenant par la manche. Regarde, lui dit-il, sais-tu quil grandira encore ? La bonne emplette ! Ce mot seul mempcha de parler, & me rendit toute ma fureur. (Lavalle 1791: I, 151152.) Trapp: Urban pulled his lieutenant by the sleeve, look, says he, dont you think he will be taller yet? What a good bargain! This only word hindered me from speaking, and made me as furious as ever. (Trapp 1790: I, 98.) Anonymous: Urban drew his lieutenant by the sleeve. Observe, said he, Dont you think he will grow still stouter? What a charming acquisition! This word alone drove back the discovery from my lips, and recalled all my former fury. (Anonymous 1790: 132.) Saillants article has recently been republished as Chapter 12 in Thomas A. Foster (2007), ed., Long Before Stonewall: Histories of Same-Sex Sexuality in Early America (New York: New York University Press), 303330. 6. What Friedman writes about Lavalles novel seems to be an overinterpretation (2001: 118, emphasis added): As John Saillant points out in his essay , quite a few abolitionist writings of this period were marked by an unmistakably erotic interest in the black mans body especially his large black penis. The first of these works to claim an audience in America was written by a Frenchman, Joseph LaVallee, in 1789. There was little doubt about the way in which LaVallees hero, the African slave Itanoko, was rarely equaled by his white admirers: as LaVallees first English translator put it, the finely muscled, naked Itanoko lacked pudicity modesty concerning his penis. The Negro Equaled presented its argument for the brotherhood of man in homoerotic terms. Itanoko is irresistible to every man he meets in LaVallees book 7. Vincent Carretta (1997: 456) explains this error as arising from a misunderstanding of the 1801 Philadelphia editions title: The Negro equalled by few Europeans: translated from the French: to which are added poems on various subjects, moral and entertaining/ by Phillis Wheatley, Negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, in New England. The 1801 edition of The Negro Equalled by Few Europeans also contains a text that was possibly by Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects, Moral and Entertaining, even though the title does not exactly correspond to that of Wheatleys only known work, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (London, 1773). 8. Examples of the differences between the two English translations (emphasis added): 1. Trapp: He pours out a bumper, presents it to me, then takes his own glass, and drinks my health (Trapp 1790: I, 97); Anonymous: He took a glass, filled it, and presented it to me; then filled his own, and drank my health (Anonymous 1790: I, 131). 2. Trapp: Take these two thousand dollars in gold, it is all I have, they are yours, take them (Trapp 1790: I, 99); Anonymous: Here are two thousand crowns in gold. They are all I possess, take them. (Anonymous 1790: I, 134.) 3. Trapp: In a moment, when fatigue was painted on the Colonels face, the negro told him, Massa, you to give you much great trouble, but you to fight for the liberty, me too suffer with patience, if me have the liberty to fight. (Trapp 1790: I, 220). Anonymous: seeing the colonel almost overcome with fatigue, he said, Master, you suffer great deal, but you fight for liberty: me suffer too with patience, if me have liberty to defend! (Anonymous 1790: II, 249, original italics.) 9. In Trapps translation: The noblest and most interesting cause which can be pleaded at the tribunal of humanity (Trapp 1790: I, vii).

Translating for a Good Cause 327 10. Global strategy: general translation strategy referring to the overall approach to be taken when translating a given text, such as translate very freely, or make the translation sound strange and foreign (MonAKO Glossary, s.v. global strategy). 11. Transediting: pragmatic translation strategy which involves radical editing, in order to make the target text clearer or communicatively more efficient . (MonAKO Glossary s.v. transediting). 12. Even some intertextual references have been omitted. The novels epigraph is missing in this translation: Lavalle: Les Scythes pour tre Scythes cessent-ils dtre hommes ? Alexis Comnne Sinesius (Lavalle 1789); Trapp: Do Scythians for being Scythians cease to be men? Alexis Comnenius to Sinesius (Trapp 1790). 13. On the title page of Trapps translation appears a list of seventeen contemporary London booksellers and their addresses. Eight of these booksellers are mentioned by James Raven. In addition, according to his book there were bookshops in most of the streets indicated as booksellers addresses in Trapps translation. (Raven 2007: 147, 157, 158, 163164, 165, 168185, 191, 234235, 239, 241, 313, 318, 337). Naturally, this does not prove that the booksellers actually sold or contributed to the publishing of Trapps translation. 14. The subscribers were: Mr Adams, Architect; Mr Adams, Optician; Mr Alldin; James Bagshaw, Esq.; Mrs Baker; Mr Barker; Mr Benoimont; Mr Bewick; Mr Wm. Brown; Mr Brown; Mr Carpenter; Mr Chesterman; R.E. Crouch, Esq.; Michael Cullen, Esq. St. Vincents; Miss Day; Mr Dumitand; Lord Viscount Fielding; Mr John Finlay; Mrs Francis; Mr Fowler; Rev. Mr John Gardnor; Mrs Garrick, Mr Gilbert; Grey, Esq.; Mr Grigg; Mrs Howell; Mr Wm. Hughes; Miss Ince; Mr Jones; Mr Kinsey; Sir Egerton Leigh, Bart, Northhampton; Lady Leigh; Lady Leigh; Samuel Egerton Leigh, Esq.; Mrs Lord; Mr Wm. Lycett; Mr MQueen; Mr John Mertens; Lewis Middleton, Esq.; Thomas Mills, Esq.; Mr Thomas Morrell; Mr Thomas Morris; Mr John Murray; Miss Sophia Nidery; Mr A. Nortmann; Mr George Perceival; Mr Pitman; Mr Pugh; Richard Ray, Esq.; Mrs G. Renard, Paris; Mr Richardson; Mr Thomas Richardson; Mr James Ridgeway; Mr Sanders; Mr Schooley; Mr Sculthorpe; Mr Still; Isaac Swainson, Esq.; Mr James Theakstone; Mr Vedis; Mr John Watson; Mrs Whittle; Rev. David Williams; Mr Thomas Williams; Mr John Wilson; Mr George Wood; Mr Jonathan Wright. 15. According to James Raven (2007: 316), books containing lists of subscribers had some of the smallest print runs of all publications in the English Short-Title Catalogue (EighteenthCentury). 16. There was also a rival magazine with the same title published by John Wheble (Raven 2007: 175). 17. Patronage: people and institutions that exert power and control (economic, ideological, political) over a cultures literary system and hence over a translators decisions, such as clients, publishers, political or religious or literary institutions, academia, the media (MonAKO Glossary, s.v. patronage). 18. This interpolated story tells the youthful adventures of Father Bruno. It has some characteristics of an oriental tale, for example an episode that takes place in a seraglio. Its location in the middle of the novel and its didacticity also recall the Man of the Hill in Tom Jones.

328 Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov 19. Cf. also Markman Ellis (1996), The Politics of Sensibility: Race, Gender and Commerce in the Sentimental Novel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Ellis (1996/ 2004: 4) discusses the paradox of sentimentalism in this context. 20. See, for example, endnote 11 in Lavalle 1791: I, 338339 (Trapp 1790, endnote 9: I, 219; Anonymous 1790, endnote 9: I, 220221), which describes the violent treatment of a black female slave by a white woman holding a firebrand. The latters motive is that the former had forgotten to give breakfast to her angora cat. 21. In Behns original, Oroonoko kills the pregnant Imoinda to save her from his enemies, while at the end of the novel he is executed in the most shocking way (Behn 1997: 36, 61, 64). 22. Byam and Jamoan desire Imoinda in La Places translation. Byam harasses Imoinda in La Places Oronoko in a manner quite similar to Thodores treatment of Amlie in Lavalles novel (La Place 2008: 112117; Lavalle 1791: III, 109115). The theme virtue in distress, of course, recalls Pamela. 23. Could it be partly Oroonokos influence that orientalism is characteristic of French abolitionist writing? In addition, the first black character in French literature to speak for himself and to lament the wrongs of slavery was a eunuch, in Letter IX of Montesquieus Lettres persanes (Ehrard 2008: 8081). 24. Lavalle: Cette description, toute rvoltante quelle [sic] puisse parotre, est encore adoucie. Dans lexacte vrit ils sont enchans deux deux avec des entraves de fer, dont on ne les dbarrasse jamais pendant toute la traverse. . En gnral tous les Ngres arrivent aux isles extnus de faim & de soif, les membres engourdis par la pesanteur de leurs fers, souvent rongs par le scorbut ; si lon ajoute ces douleurs physiques les souffrances morales que leur font prouver la privation de la patrie, le plus cruel de tous les maux pour un Ngre, & lopinion absurde, il est vrai, mais toujours tourmentante, o ils sont quon ne les transportent [sic] que pour tre mangs, on aura quelquide du supplice qui les tenaille pendant une longue traverse : Ils arrivent ! Que trouventils ? Des travaux, des tortures, & des hommes fiers de leurs lumires, & qui se disent humains. (Lavalle 1789: I, 333335.) 25. In classical rhetoric, proofs were divided into two categories, artificial and inartificial. Artificial or artistic proofs were constructed following the rules of logic, ethics and pathos. Inartificial proofs were concrete, e.g. the lifeless body of a victim. (Carey 2005/2007: 3637.) 26. Paralipsis: The rhetorical device of emphasizing or drawing attention to something by professing to say little or nothing about it, or affecting to dismiss it (usually with such phrases as not to mention, to say nothing of, etc.); an instance of this (OED on-line, s.v. paralipsis). 27. According to Catherine Duprat (1993: 181 nt. 103), there were 509,000 slaves, 35,000 white colonists and 26,000 free coloured men in St. Domingo at that time. 28. Here Lavalle probably refers to the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus says that the roles will be reversed in Heaven. See Careys (2005/2007: 98) analysis of Blakes The Little Black Boy.

Translating for a Good Cause 329

Corpus texts
Anonymous. 1790. The Negro Equalled by few Europeans. Translated from the French. London: printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson. Lavalle, Joseph. 1789. Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs. Madras/Paris: Buisson. Lavalle, Joseph. 1791. Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs. Seconde dition. Madras/Paris: Buisson. Consulted via ECCO (accessed AugustOctober 2008). Trapp, J. A.M. 1790. The Negro as there are Few White Men. Translated from the French. London: Printed for the author, and sold by Messrs. White and Son, Fleet Street; Elliot and Kay, opposite Sommerset House; Richardson, Royal Exchange; Parsons, Pater-noster Row; Steel, Towerhill; Flexney, Deighton, Holborn; Cattermoul, Oxford Street; Ridgeway, York Street, St. Jamess Square; Brown, Otridge, Strahan, MQueen, Strand; Fowler, Piazza, Covent Garden; Murray, Princes Street; Parsley, Surry Road; and J. Barker, Russell Court, Drury Lane.

References
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Rsum
Dans Le Ngre comme il y a peu de Blancs (1789) de Joseph Lavalle, lauteur met les moyens romanesques ouvertement au service de la lutte contre lesclavage. Son but, dit-il en ouverture, est de faire aimer les Noirs. Le roman eut un certain succs en France et il fut traduit en anglais deux fois en 1790, dabord par Joseph Trapp et ensuite par un traducteur anonyme. Le prsent article est bas sur une analyse de traduction de quelques passages cls contenant des arguments abolitionnistes dans les trois textes. Nous soutenons que le second traducteur anglais avait systmatiquement manipul sa traduction, pour la rendre plus conforme aux exigences de labolitionnisme ; quelques passages du texte de dpart qui sont en contradiction avec le message antiesclavagiste du roman ont t omis ou modifis dans cette traduction. Il est intressant de noter que cest cette version manipule du roman qui devint la plus populaire chez les lecteurs anglophones.

332 Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov

Mots-clefs : esclavage, abolitionnisme, antiesclavagiste, manipulation, Lavalle, Trapp, ngre, Oronoko, Itanoko

Authors address
Dr. Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov Lyckallee 19 D-14055 Berlin Germany ktaivalkoski@yahoo.com