Writing Translations, Writing History: Colonial American Voices and the Problem of Verticality

This article defines and analyzes the concepts of vertical and horizontal translation. Translators of historical documents must translate vertically through time as well as horizontally from a different language. These processes are further complicated when the original transcriber was a different person from the original speaker and when the source passes through multiple languages and cultures. The article explores these concepts in translations of sources by Pontiac, John Smith, and others in early North America.