Elaine G. Breslaw. Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies. New York: New York University Press, 1996. xxv + 243 pp. $24.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8147-1227-6.
Reviewed by Robynne Rogers Healey
Published on H-Women (March, 1998)
During the spring and summer of 1692, the an whose confession initiated them. On one level, lives of the residents of Salem and surrounding this is a biography of Tituba and the circum‐ area were thrown into upheaval. This was the stances surrounding her confession and subse‐ time of the infamous Salem witchhunts. Between quent recantation. On another level, however, March and October, over a hundred and ffty peo‐ Breslaw's work is an example of how biography ple were arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. can be used successfully to tell a story much larg‐ When Governor Phips called for a stop to the exe‐ er than the story of one life. Historians, especially cutions in early October, twenty-four people had social historians, have a nasty habit of looking died: nineteen were hanged, one was pressed to askance at biography as a tool of political histori‐ death, and four died of other causes while in ans used to tell the story of infuential men and prison. The efects of the witchhunts were far- occasionally famous women. But skilfully done, reaching. As Elaine Breslaw notes, "[h]undreds of biography can ofer a window through which we lives [were] disrupted by jailings, the loss of prop‐ can peer into the past and gain an appreciation of erty, and the absence of needed labor on the farm events through the life of an individual and the and in the household. Ties between children and people with whom she had contact.[1] The draw‐ parents, between husbands and wives, among sib‐ back, of course, is that biography is tied to the spe‐ lings and neighbors, were frayed by accusations cifc: a specifc individual, kinship network, com‐ and counteraccusations. Some would never recov‐ munity, worldview. Many biographies could be er from the trauma" (p. 171). The witchhunts written about the people who took part in this rocked Puritan society to its core. At their heart event. Yet, by ofering insights into the use of the stands the confession of one woman: Tituba, confession as a defence mechanism, the biogra‐ Amerindian slave of Samuel Parris. phy of Tituba sheds light on yet another facet of Breslaw's recent book is a fascinating re-ex‐ the Salem witch craze. amination of the Salem witchhunts and the wom‐ H-Net Reviews
Methodologically, Elaine Breslaw's examina‐ of the trials and Tituba's recantation of her con‐ tion of Tituba provides an important contribution fession. Presented in this manner, Breslaw is able to both women's history and the history of witch‐ to illustrate how the two worlds, although very craft. Its importance lies primarily in her reap‐ distinct, were inextricably linked. Tituba's experi‐ praisal of the confession and the woman at the ences in South America, Barbados, and Massachu‐ centre of the Salem witch trials. Breslaw's pur‐ setts meant that she crossed over many worlds pose is not simply to revisit and reconstruct the and cultures: Amerindian, African, English, and life of Tituba. She seeks to discern how a woman Puritan. In one way, Tituba herself represents the who remained outside the Salem Puritan commu‐ successful syncretism of language and culture in nity, because of her identity as an Indian, was the British colonial world. Her experiences among able, through her confessions, to initiate a witch her own people, the Arawak, her interactions scare, the likes of which the British colonial world with the African and Creole worlds on Barbados, never again witnessed. Breslaw painstakingly re‐ her contact with Elizabeth Pearsehouse, her white constructs Tituba's pre-trial life from minimal in‐ mistress in Barbados, and her years in the house‐ formation and tiny clues buried in Barbadian hold of Samuel Parris meant that by the winter of plantation records. She then re-examines the 1691-92 Tituba had absorbed many aspects of all witchcraft narratives, in light of her conclusions these cultures as well as the ability to communi‐ on Tituba's worldview. From this, Breslaw deter‐ cate abstract ideas in competently-spoken English. mines that Tituba's 1692 confession was not an act Yet, as acculturated as Tituba had become to Puri‐ of submission. Rather, by manipulating the fears tan society in terms of her deportment and ac‐ of Salem's Puritan leaders, Tituba's confession can tions, she was never accepted completely by the be seen as an act of slave resistance against the community and consequently remained an out‐ abusive treatment of her master Samuel Parris, sider. This was a result of Tituba's Amerindian Salem's Puritan minister. Moreover, Breslaw con‐ identity and the equation of that identity in the tends that the ensuing frenzy that swept through Puritan mind with "the presence of evil" (p. 98). the village demonstrates the existence of a syn‐ Ironically, it was the very identity which kept cretic culture in Puritan New England in which Tituba outside the community that lent credence the Puritan worldview and print culture was to her confession. Puritans assumed that Indians shaded by other distinct worldviews and folklore. had closer ties to the spirit world (pp. 99-100). Tituba's confession of visitations by the Devil, Tituba's "Indianness," combined with her own women fying on sticks, satanic pacts, and a book knowledge of the beliefs, practices, and fears of containing nine names was so fantastic that it was the spirit world of her own and other cultures, necessary to keep her alive for further question‐ added legitimacy to her confession of witch craft. ing. Similar testimonies by those subsequently ac‐ After all, Tituba had participated in a magic ritual. cused opened the door between high and popular In her eforts to relieve the sufering of Betty Par‐ culture, between the common folk and the educat‐ ris, Tituba agreed to cooperate with Parrises' ed elite. The meeting of these two cultures created neighbour, Mary Sibley, in countermagic by mak‐ "a violent moment in early New England history, ing a witchcake. The witchcake, a mixture of rye but one that ultimately redirected Puritanism into meal and the girl's urine baked in ashes and fed to less turbulent paths" (p. 181). a dog that, as the familiar of the witch, would dis‐ The biography is presented in two parts: the close the source of Betty Parris's sufering. The at‐ frst explores Tituba's life in Barbados following tempt at countermagic was unsuccessful. Betty her capture and enslavement; the second exam‐ Parris did not improve; in fact, she got worse and ines her experiences in Massachusetts to the end her symptoms spread to three other girls who had
2 H-Net Reviews been involved in the experiment. By this point, tional confict were at their peak, set the stage for Samuel Parris and other community leaders had the witchhunts that followed. Tituba's confession decided that the girls' suferings were the result of fuelled rather than dampened the elite's worst satanic infuence. Asked to identify their tormen‐ fears about what was happening in their village. tors, the four girls accused Sarah Goode, Sarah Os‐ An important aspect of re-examining the trial borne and Tituba. narratives and Tituba's confession is the connec‐ Confronted with her actions by her master, tion of her testimony to a larger group of people, Tituba denied being a witch because, in her both strangers and acquaintances from within worldview, a witch was one who used magic with and without the community. Tituba's implication the intent to harm, similar to the Arawak ke‐ of men and women of high status challenged tra‐ naima, who used occult power solely for evil ditional notions of hierarchy and allowed for ends. But Tituba's beliefs were not shared by her witchcraft accusations to extend beyond the social persecutors who believed that all occult practices misfts normally accused. Therefore, although were tools of the Devil. Tituba was arrested, along women, especially women whose situation or be‐ with the other women, for alleged witchcraft ac‐ haviour placed them outside conventional Puri‐ tivities used with the intent to injure the four tan opinion,[3] constituted the majority of those girls. At what point Tituba decided to "confess" to accused of witchcraft, Tituba's confession in‐ witchcraft is unknown. What we do know is that creased the vulnerability of men and people of by the time of her initial hearing on 1 March 1692, high status to accusation. With nothing more than Tituba reluctantly at frst, and then more forceful‐ two transcriptions of the narratives, it is impossi‐ ly confessed to familiarity with the Devil. The con‐ ble to know whether Tituba deliberately issued fession did not end here. What followed was the this challenge to established tenets of gender and unfolding of a concocted story so fantastic that it status. For, as Breslaw points out, in so many cas‐ set of a witchhunt based on panic and hysteria in es, Tituba's testimony was given in one context-- which no one was safe from accusations of witch‐ that of the syncretic worldview of the common craft. folk--and was interpreted in another--that of the What set the Salem witchhunts apart from Puritan theological elite. For instance, the trance previous witchcraft cases was the panic that en‐ into which Tituba was drawn on her frst day of sued when Tituba introduced the beliefs of the testimony was in the contemporary African and common folk into the courtroom of Salem's edu‐ Indian rituals of Barbados "a familiar part of cated elite. As Breslaw points out, witchcraft was magico-religious healing ceremonies" (p. 122). not foreign to the worldview of Puritans. Magic Thomas Putnam interpreted the trance as Tituba's and religion were very much intertwined. The su‐ bewitchment by other witches. Although this par‐ pernatural world was not one known only to ticular even added to Tituba's credibility, it also Africans and Indians, but was an integral part of spurred on the witchhunt. Puritan belief. Accusations of witchcraft were not The lack of a legitimate government and the uncommon. In fact, as Keith Thomas has argued, suspension of courts until the arrival of a new these accusations could function as a method of governor meant that the witch scare could not im‐ social control, deterring undesirable behaviour mediately be resolved. This allowed a period of and encouraging community solidarity.[2] But the time whereby there was a negotiation of folklore circumstances and results of these accusations and theological beliefs within the public sphere. were very diferent. Tituba's confession, delivered Ultimately, it would lead to an altered Puritan no‐ in an environment where social tension and fac‐ tion of the cosmic order. This was not so much a
3 H-Net Reviews result of Tituba's confession directly but of subse‐ vidual thoughts based only on court transcripts is quent testimonies which borrowed from those supposititious. Yet, even though some of the spe‐ concepts she introduced but incorporated ele‐ cifc detail is speculative, the larger premise of ments, such as mock sacraments which ft readily colliding and adaptive worldviews is well argued into the framework of Puritan folk beliefs of Devil and recounted through this biography of Tituba, worship. The confessions helped to feed the fren‐ reluctant witch of Salem. zy; people were convicted on weak spectral evi‐ Notes dence. By the summer, unable to live with the [1]. Probably the best example of this to date possibility of eternal damnation for lying, the con‐ is Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's, A Midwife's Tale: The victed began to retract their confessions. Tituba Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, also recanted, saying she had lied to protect her‐ 1785-1812, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc, 1990). self from a master who had essentially beaten a confession out of her. In October, when Governor [2]. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Phips's wife was accused, the threats became too Magic, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971), personal and Phips took immediate steps to end 531. the witchhunts. Prisoners were released as their [3]. See for instance, John Putnam Demos, En‐ family and friends paid their jail fees. Tituba did tertaining Satan: Witchcraft and Culture in Early not return to the Parris family. An unknown indi‐ New England, (New York: Oxford University Press, vidual paid her jail fees in April of 1693, allowing 1982) and Carol Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of for her release; from that point Tituba disappears a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, from the public record. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987). A re-examination of the events in Salem dur‐ Copyright (c) 1998 by H-Net, all rights re‐ ing this period using a worldview approach illus‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft trates the clashing cultural contexts in which peo‐ educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ ple were moving and demonstrates how events thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ and circumstances could be (mis)interpreted in tact [email protected]. vastly diferent ways by the historical actors. But Breslaw's interpretation is at times too specula‐ tive to yield the conclusions she asserts. For in‐ stance, in her testimony, Tituba maintained that the Devil frst appeared to her one night as she was going to sleep. Breslaw's connection of this statement to the Indian identifcation of dreams as omens could be solidly supported. Her further claim, however, that Tituba was attempting to warn the people of Salem of Parris's evil ways, a "suggestion" that was ignored, is speculation that cannot be supported. In the instance of the Titu‐ ba's trance, also interpreted in the syncretic Indi‐ an/Creole worldview, Breslaw insists that "it was not necessarily [Tituba's] intent to claim to be a victim" (p. 122). How do we know this? Further examples could be cited. To attribute intent or to assume knowledge of a person's or persons' indi‐
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Citation: Robynne Rogers Healey. Review of Breslaw, Elaine G. Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem: Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies. H-Women, H-Net Reviews. March, 1998.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=1851
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