Essay Sample on The Salem Witch Trials: The Story of Tituba

The Salem Witch trials is a series of twenty trials that took place in Salem. The trials were conducted in order to accuse and persecute those believed to be practicing witchcraft. The Salem Witch Trials began in the small puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts. This community was located in the pre-revolutionary war, New England Colonies. The Salem Witch trials began in January 1692 and lasted until about May 1692. The Salem witch trials did not exclude a soul when it came to the mass hysteria. Men and Women were accused of being witches and practicing witchcraft. The fear of witches drifted through the town of Salem like the plague. Neighbors were turning on neighbors even families were on edge with one another. Nonetheless the Salem Witch trials are an important part of America's history. Brief describes it as “One of New England’s most frightening religious episodes”(Brief 57). This episode may have been merely avoided if it was not for Tituba. Tituba is believed to be the source of the beginning to the Salem witch trials. Tituba played an important role in the Salem Witch Trials. However, Who is Tituba and what impact did she have on the Salem witch trials and its effect on pre-revolutionary america.

The Salem Witch Trials began with a story of girls and their behavior. According to Barrillari, “In late February of 1692, Reverend Samuel Parris called in a doctor to examine his nine-year-old daughter, Betty, and eleven-year-old niece, Abigail Williams-both of whom were suffering from spontaneous fits. The children were soon diagnosed as victims of witchcraft, setting off an outbreak of panic and hysteria” (Barillari). The children were acting quite strange. Some resources say the “fits” were screaming, throwing armed temper tantrums. While other resources like Schiff state, “young girls began to writhe and roar. They contorted violently; they complained of bites and pinches. They alternately interrupted sermons and fell mute, “their throats choked, their limbs wracked,” an observer noted. After some hesitation, after much discussion, they were declared to be bewitched” (Schiff). The girls who fell into the spell of witchcraft were quick to accuse. The girls pointed straight to the slave who watched them and spent the majority of time with them. The slave was known as Tituba.

Tituba is an enslaved women who resided in Salem Massachusetts as an in-home slave. According to the New York Historical Society, “Historical records do not contain any information about her early life, or how she came to be enslaved. In 1692, Tituba lived and worked in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris, the minister of Salem Village. She helped Samuel’s wife and daughters do all the work necessary to keep their home running” (WAMS). Another article written in the Smithsonian Newspaper states, “Especially close to 9-year-old Betty Parris, she had worked and prayed alongside the family for years, for at least a decade in Boston and Salem. She took her meals with the girls, beside whom she likely slept at night. Tituba may have sailed from Barbados in 1680 with Parris, then still a bachelor and not yet a minister. Though likely a South American Indian, her origins are unclear”(Schiff). It is interesting however, that many people are unsure of Tituba's background, where she came from, or even her heritage. There are even many different reports on the race of Tituba. The closest thing we have to identifying Tituba are the court records from her trial. According to Barillari, “In all of the court documents relating to the Witchcraft Trials, Tituba's identity is listed as that of an "Indian Woman, servant" (for example, Warrant vs. Tituba and Sarah Osborne -SWP 745). But as scholars have recently pointed out, somewhere in the development of the Salem lore, Tituba's racial heritage has been transformed and confused-thus she appears in texts variously as "Negro," "half-breed," "colored," or "half-Indian, half-Negro." Assumptions about her origins range from the island of Barbados to Africa to Native American” (Barillari). This complicates the story and shows the racist mindset and divide of Salem. Nonetheless, Tituba shook the small town of massachuets because racism and fear only fueled the fire in the witch hunt. 

The Tituba trial only stirred the pot more in the town of Salem. Tituaba seemed to be another innocent victim taken by the witch hunt. There are many reports that state Tituba was coerced into pleading guilty. According to Brooks, “Many sources, including Tituba herself, indicate she was forced to confess after being beaten by Parris”(Brooks).  Some articles even state that Tituba did admit to being a “witch”. However, she said it in a sarcastic manner. Tituba's witch confession consisted of activities far too Europeanized to be actual witchcraft. The confession seemed as if it was written up for her. According to Barilli, “she confessed to signing the Devil's book, flying in the air upon a pole, seeing a cats wolves, birds, and dogs, and pinching or choking some of the "afflicted" girls” (Barilli). If all of this is true, then where were the witnesses of her flying through the sky or of signing the devil's book?

Tituba is considered one of the lucky ones. Many witches who pled guilty or those who were wrongfully convicted often ended in fatal tragedies. Convicted witches would be hung, stoned, or even burned to death. Tituba was different though. According to Brooks, “as a slave with no social standing, money or personal property in the community, Tituba had nothing to lose by confessing to the crime and probably knew that a confession could save her life” (Brooks). The confession may be the reason that Tituba was spared. According to Miles, “ she was thrown in prison” (Miles). Other resources state she only stayed in jail until her fees were paid. Miles continue to say the reason that Tituba was set free is because an anonymous donor paid her fees and bought her as a slave (Miles). 

It is unsure if Tituba was actually a witch or just following the traditional practices of her mother and grandmother. These practices may have been seen as witch-like to the uncommon eye. According to Barilli, “Tituba struck the "fatal spark" and ignited simmering tensions in Salem Village by enthralling the local teenage girls with her stories of African or Caribbean voodoo and magic spells must be recognized for what it is --a story. It was not her "voodoo spells and stories" which, in fact, caused the girls' initial hysterics but their practice of forbidden fortune telling” (Barilli). However this is no proof that someone is a witch. Storytelling is common in all communities and is oftentimes full of legends. Barilli continues to explain the method the girls were supposedly taught and provides more situational understanding for the misconception. “The fortune telling technique that the girls' used, as reported by one of them to the Rev. John Hale, was an egg white in a glass of water. This was a commonly known device in New England at the time, and it was condemned by the Puritans as a demonic practice” (Barilli). The puritans lived in a strict community. Most things today would be demonic in the eyes of the puritans. Brooks states, “Tituba and her husband John helped a neighbor named Mary Sibley bake a witch cake, a cake made from rye meal and the afflicted girl’s urine, and fed it to a dog hoping it would reveal the name of whoever bewitched the girls” (Brooks). Although this is uncommon for others, this seemed to be a typical ritual ceremony to Tituba. This does not prove that Tituba is a witch.

Tituba was one of the many victims of the Salem Witch Trials. She was the first victim of many yet to come. Who knows how tables may have turned if she had not pled guilty to a crime there was not enough evidence to convict her on. Although a tragic time for soon to be American history. Luckily enough for her, Tituba was able to escape the executing block. However, many others did not have the same fortune. Tituba will forever live in history as the star witness of the trials and as the Lucky one. As for America, we should look at this time as a learning curve. The women and men of this time shall not be forgotten, but remembered for their sacrifice (forced or not) to the new ideas of social justice and judicial reform. Americans should look back on this time and to Tituba and remember what happens when we are quick to judge and point fingers. Factual evidence will always speak volumes over hearsay. 

Works Cited

Barillari, Alyssa. “Tituba.” Salem Witch Trials: Tituba, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people/tituba.html.

Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice, et al. “Tituba: The Slave of Salem.” History of Massachusetts Blog, 12 Nov. 2021,   https://historyofmassachusetts.org/tituba-the-slave-of-salem/.

Cohen, Lizabeth, and Mel Piehl. “American Life in the Seventeenth Century.” The Brief American Pageant: A History of the Republic, Wadsworth, Australia, 2016.

“Life Story: Tituba.” Women & the American Story, 17 June 2021, https://wams.nyhistory.org/settler-colonialism-and-revolution/settler-colonialism/tituba/.

Miles. The Salem Journal: The People, http://people.ucls.uchicago.edu/~snekros/Salem%20Journal/People/MilesL.html.

Schiff, Stacy. “Unraveling the Many Mysteries of Tituba, the Star Witness of the Salem Witch Trials.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Nov. 2015, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unraveling-mysteries-tituba-salem-witch-trials-180956960/.