Tituba

Tituba was the first woman to confess of being a witch during the Salem witch trials of 1692 that took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts. In the late seventeenth century Tituba lived on the island of Barbados as a slave^[1]. While Tituba lived on the island she was bought by a man named Samuel Parris to care for his home. Sometime during the 1680’s Samuel Parris moved his family and his slave Tituba to Boston, Massachusetts. In 1689 Samuel Parris became Minister of Salem Village and began to preach in the Village.

Salem Witch Trials

Tituba was the first person accused of being a witch in Salem Village which eventually led to several others (men and women) in Salem and the surrounding areas to be accused of witchcraft^[2].

Tituba was first accused by 9-year-old Betty Parris, minister Samuel Parris' daughter, and her 11-year-old cousin Abigail Williams, who also lived in the Parris home. The two girls claimed to be bitten and pinched while they slept. The girls also began having fits, (such as going on all fours and barking, etc.) seizures, and comatose trances, which were eventually blamed on Tituba after Dr. Griggs diagnosed an "evil hand" upon the girls. To make matters worse, they thought it would spread to all girls.The girls' claims included accusations that they felt Tituba in their dreams pinching and biting them, then whispering in their ears to cause their fits^[3].

Tituba was formally accused of bewitching the two girls on March 1, 1692, and brought forth in a hearing with two other women of the village, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.

Tituba at first denied that she cast a spell on any of the afflicted girls, now numbering at least a half-dozen, but when pushed confessed to witchcraft and implicated the other two women accused, as well as mentioning that there were other witches in the village as well. The ensuing search for witches led to more than 170, and perhaps as many as 300, people being arrested for witchcraft, with twenty executed for the crime, as well as two dogs.

Tituba made herself a likely target for witchcraft accusations when shortly after Parris's daughter, Betty, began having strange fits and symptoms, she participated in the preparation of a "witchcake" (a mixture of rye and Betty's urine, cooked and fed to a dog, in the belief that the dog would then reveal the identity of Betty's afflictor). Parris was enraged when he found out about the cake, and shortly thereafter the afflicted girls named Tituba as a witch. Parris beat her until she confessed.

Tituba was the first witch to confess in Salem, and she likely did it to avoid further punishment. In her confession she apologized for hurting Betty, claimed she never wanted to hurt Betty, and professed her love for the child. She also wove a lively tale of an active community of witches in Salem. She named Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne as witches. By confessing early on, Tituba avoided the ordeal of going to trial, joining with the afflicted girls in providing key evidence against accused witches. Her husband, John, would also fall into fits, and become afflicted.

When public sentiment towards the accusers and the trials began to change, Tituba recanted her confession. This further enraged Parris, who in retaliation, refused to pay the jailer's fee to get Tituba out a prison. As a result, she spent thirteen months in jail until an unknown person paid the seven pounds for her release and bought her. It is likely that the same person bought her husband, John, because Puritans were not inclined to split up married couples, even slaves. It is unknown what happened to her after she began her life with her new owner.

Historical debate

The physical description of Tituba from the first time she was studied by a historian to the present study of her life has had controversy surrounding it. The argument of Tituba’s ancestry has gained more and more attention day by day. In the beginning of the scholarly study of Tituba it was considered to be an assumed fact that Tituba was of Indian descent^[4]. But over time the origins of Tituba have begun to be re-evaluated and old theories have been contested.

The debate over whether Tituba was of Indian ethnicity or of African ancestry cannot be resolved with the evidence available today. One scholar who tries to explain why the debate cannot be resolved is Veta Smith Ticker^[5]. Smith writes

17th-century Puritans blended the categories Indian, African, and slave…In seventeenth century Massachusetts, such discriminations among unregenerate peoples of color were considered unnecessary, especially for slaves. By 1692 Columbus's error had yielded a catchall term…applied to the Guanahani, the Caribbe, the Aztecs, and West Indies Arficans…

This passage from the Ticker article sets the background on how the debate over the ethnicity of Tituba’s origins can still be going today. Since there was no clear distinction by the Puritans on the racial differences between Indians, Africans, and slaves it remains hard to truly identify Tituba’s origin. This however is not the only reason for the scholarly debate over the identity of Tituba. Another reason is covered by Chadwick Hansen. In Hansen's article the issue of the racial identity of witches during Puritan times is addressed. Hansen states ^[6]

Over the years the magic Tituba practiced has been changed by historians and dramatists from English, to Indian, to African. More startlingly, her own race has been changed from Indian, to half-Indian and half-Negro, to Negro…There is no evidence to support these changes, but there is an instructive lesson in American historiography to be read in them.

Hansen explains that due to further research into Tituba’s origins that American historians feel more comfortably with labeling Tituba a practicer of Indian, or African magic as long as it is not connected to any form of European magic. These sources show why the historical debate over Tituba’s beginning are just as relevant as the part that Tituba played in the Salem witch trials.

Fiction

Tituba is the protagonist of the novel I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (1982) by Maryse Condé*, she also featured prominently in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The image of Tituba as the instigator of witchcraft at Salem fed into the popular mindset by the opening scene of The Crucible, which owes much to Marion Starkey’s work "The Devil in Massachusetts" (1949).

In the play, Tituba was brought to Salem from Barbados, was told to know how to conjure up spirits, and had allegedly dabbled in sorcery, witchcraft, and Satanism. These fictional accounts hold that Abigail Williams and the other girls tried to use her knowledge when dancing in the woods before the trials began; it was, in fact, their being caught that preceded those events. With the original intention of covering up their own sinful deeds, Tituba was the one to be accused by Abigail, who had in fact drank from a magic cup Tituba made, to kill John Proctor's wife Elizabeth and to bewitch him into loving her. She and the other girls claimed to have seen Tituba "with the Devil."

It is ironic that the belief that Tituba led these girls astray has persisted in popular lore, fiction and non fiction alike. The charge, which is seen by some as having barely disguised racial undertones, is based on the imagination of authors like Starkey, who eerily mirrors Salem’s accusers when she asserts that "I have invented the scenes with Tituba .... but they are what I really believe happened."

Tituba is also the main character in the book "Tituba of Salem Village" by Ann Petry.

• Though it should be noted that according to I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem, Tituba was born in Barbados as the result of an English sailor raping her mother, Abena (who had "jet black skin", which is evidence that Abena and Tituba were of African descent, rather than Indian). The book also says that Abena (as well as two male slaves bought with her) were Ashantis. In the book, Tituba is never associated by blood with any Indian people.

References

External links

• Link to Salem witchcraft video[1]
• Link to information on Barbados[2]

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