American History Online Tituba

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Tituba, an enslaved woman, has become central to scholars' understanding of the 1692 Salem witchcraft hysteria. She was the first of the accused to confess, yet she was spared execution. Who was Tituba and what role did she play in this tragic drama? Historians, after hundreds of years and numerous volumes, continue to disagree and to discover new information. Earlier accounts isolated Tituba in her surroundings; historians now emphasize the cultural exchange of differing beliefs that arose between nonwhites and Puritans. Despite this progress, however, many uncertainties persist; the documentary record is thin.

Tituba's nativity and the vicissitudes of her life have confounded scholars for centuries. Historians once claimed, and some still do, that Tituba was an African. Documents most recently discovered, however, suggest that she was very likely an Arawak Amerindian born and raised in Guiana. Captured and shipped as a slave to Barbados in 1674, Tituba was purchased by Samuel Parris (subsequently a key figure in the Salem witchcraft episode), then moved first to Boston and then to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1689. By the time she arrived in Boston, Tituba supposedly had married John Indian; at some point, she may have had a child, Violet Indian.

Considered as peripheral in the past, Tituba is now indispensable to understanding the rise and spread of the witchcraft persecutions, which began when four young girls suffered from "bizarre physical symptoms," purportedly resulting from her witchery. As a servant in the Parris household, Tituba had close contact with his daughter, Betty, one of the afflicted girls. Out of concern for the child and at the urging of Mary Sibley, a neighbor, Tituba and John Indian mixed up a witchcake of rye meal and Betty's urine that they baked in ashes. They fed it to the dog, which was supposed to reveal who had bewitched the children. Parris learned about the cake and demanded the culprits' names. When the girls identified Tituba, the ordeal began.

Historian Elaine G. Breslaw has argued that Tituba, an Amerindian outsider, deftly and defiantly manipulated Puritan fears. As one of the first to testify during the trials, Tituba's fantastic tales of witches in Salem set the stage for the hysteria that ensued. Over 150 people were arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. Her elaborate descriptions and naming of others, combined with the girls' histrionics and Parris's bombastic sermons, contributed to condemning a number of women and a few men to the gallows. One man was pressed to death. Others languished in jail. Twenty-four people died.

Once the hysteria subsided, Tituba recanted her confession and thereby escaped execution. However, she did not escape punishment; she was confined in jail for 13 months. Furious that the court only incarcerated Tituba, Parris refused to pay her jail fees. There she remained until someone unknown purchased her in 1693. Tituba never appeared in the historical documents again.

Further Information

Elaine G. Breslaw, Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies (New York: New York University Press, 1996);

Peter Charles Hoffer, The Devil's Disciples: Makers of the Salem Witchcraft Trials (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996);

Bernard Rosenthal, "Tituba's Story," New England Quarterly 71 (1998): 190–203;

Veta Smith Tucker, "Purloined Identity: The Metamorphosis of Tituba of Salem Village," Journal of Black Studies 30 (2000): 624–634.