Although little is known about Tituba, her confessions to having made a pact with the devil and practicing witchcraft would lead to the notorious Salem Witch Trials. To this day, her life is surrounded in mystery and uncertainty. In the puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, the local Reverend Samuel Parris became increasingly concerned for the welfare of his 9-year-old daughter, Betty, and 11-year-old niece, Abigail.
The two girls had begun to behave frantically, screaming in pain, claiming to be pinched by unseen forces, and having fits. Samuel Parris desperately sought the help of the local doctor, William Griggs. Griggs examined the girls, but was unable to diagnose any known medical condition, so claimed that the only reason the girls' could be suffering was because they had been possessed by the Devil.
To make matters worse, two of the friends of the Parris girls, Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbard, also began complaining of mysterious visions and hallucinations. Panic swept through the colony of Salem, and the town's leaders declared that Salem was under attack by supernatural forces. The hysteria that consumed Salem would eventually lead to the most infamous witch-hunt in American history.
The witch trials that took place resulted in almost 200 people being accused of witchcraft, with 19 people being killed, and 5 others dying in custody. Despite so many people being accused, most remain a mystery, but an enslaved lady named Tituba would be at the centre of the hysteria, and remembered as the first woman to be accused of witchcraft during the trials. The story of Tituba’s origins remain unclear, but some scholars believe that she was more than likely from the Arawak tribe of Venezuela, before being captured, and taken to Barbados to be sold as a slave.
Despite the theory of some scholars however, some historians also believe she may have been a native of Barbados. The main story of how Tituba reached Barbados begins with an English seafarer. In July of 1674, Captain Peter Wroth, of Kent, England, set sail from Barbados on his vessel the Sanoy, destined for the northeast coast of South America.
His intentions were to kidnap some American Indians and sell them into slavery, as well as trade with the more friendly tribes. Captain Wroth arrived at the Amacuro River, and began to look out for any potential targets. While sailing up the river, he met with groups of men travelling on canoes, who were told to board the ship to trade.
Those men were not taken as captives, as Wroth claimed that women slaves were preferred, and some tribes were protected by the English crown. Eventually, Wroth came across eight women and two children who wished to trade goods. Yet, Worth had another purpose and hatched a plan to kidnap the group, who also boarded his ship to trade.
The master of the Vessel, William Price and his crew, managed to capture the women, and they set sail back down the Amacuro River, and out onto the Atlantic, on a return voyage to Barbados. Though historians agree that this is more likely to have occurred, there is the possibility of Tituba descending from a group of Arawaks, that had been taken to Barbados to teach settlers how to grow crops. However, one major discrepancy in the story is that by the 1650’s, most of Arawaks were either dead, or had returned to the mainland.
It’s believed that there were no Arawaks remaining on the Island. Despite the mysteries of her origins, Tituba was eventually bought by Samuel Parris, a sugar plantation owner in Barbados. Parris studied theology at Harvard while his father had run the plantation, but he left without completing his degree.
After his father’s death in 1678, he moved back to Barbados, but the plantation had been suffering under decreasing sugar prices, as well as a hurricane wrecking the warehouses, so he decided to leave the string of bad luck behind him, and moved with his wife Elizabeth Elridge and three children to Salem, where he was accepted in becoming the local Reverend. At this time, Tituba would have gone with them to Salem as a domestic slave. Amerindian slave women were not usually put to work in the fields, but were regarded as good cooks, and so were primarily tasked with domestic work in the kitchen, or within a household.
Amerindian slaves remained small in number in comparison to African slaves. So, Wroth’s adventures through South America may have been made in the hopes of increasing the number of domestic slaves. One of these may have been Tituba.
After arriving in Massachusetts in 1680, the family settled down in Salem, after finally settling a wage dispute. Some of the villagers were happy to accommodate the Parris’ with hefty contributions, allowing the family to receive a decent wage, while other inhabitants of the town weren’t as keen to contribute. Salem was a town embroiled in bitter disputes.
The Putnam clan and the Towne family were engaged in disputes over rights to woodland, as they had both begun to cut down trees on each other's land, leading to a conflict which lasted for 50 years. Both the previous Reverends, George Burroughs and James Bailey, had been forced out of their jobs when the villagers refused to pay their salaries. Despite this, the Parris’ managed to settle in, and in particular, Tituba and Betty Parris got along well.
The Parris’ were often away from home on parish business, so the children spent most of their time with Tituba, who entertained them with stories about traditional voodoo practices in Barbados. After Betty and Abigail had begun to experience strange behaviour, Samuel pressed the girls to tell him who was responsible for practising witchcraft. Despite her relationship with the young girls, they were quick to accuse Tituba.
She was implicated in the practising of voodoo, and of allowing the girls to participate in the baking of a so called “witch cake”. It was the Parris’ neighbour Mary Sibley who allegedly instructed Tituba to bake a witch cake and feed it to a dog, in the hopes that it would reveal whoever was bewitching the young girls in Salem. At the time of the witch trials, Tituba was accused of practising witchcraft on the two girls, but denied all charges against her.
She was arrested, and thrown in jail alongside two other women, the elderly Sarah Osborne, and a beggar named Sarah Good. Although initially, Tituba staunchly denied dabbling in witchcraft; under the questioning of magistrate John Hathorne, she made a startling confession. Tituba claimed she hadn’t caused the two young girls any harm, but had made a pact with the Devil.
John Hathorne asked “Did you never see the devil? ” to which Tituba confessed “The devil came to me and bid me serve him. ” The townspeople gathered in the courtroom to hear the confession of Tituba.
The villagers were completely captivated by the tale of the demonic entities at work in Salem. Tituba gave descriptions of a variety of demonic characters, animal accomplices and other evil spirits that had arrived in Salem, eager to destroy the Puritan community. She also accused others of witchcraft in her confession, claiming that Sarah Osborne possessed a creature with the head of a woman, two legs, and wings.
Supposedly she even mentioned riding broomsticks to different places. Tituba spoke of a tall white-haired man in a dark coat that had appeared to her, and ordered her to hurt the children. If she didn’t comply with his request, he told her she would die.
What made Tituba confess her supposed covenant with the Devil isn’t clear, but scholars believe she was the perfect scapegoat for the Parris household. It’s widely assumed that she was forced into making the confession, which would have given her owner, Samuel Parris, a plausible explanation for the girls’ behaviour, especially to the villagers who would have been concerned about the apparent fortune telling techniques the two young girls had started to practice before their demise in health. As she was enslaved, Tituba would have been obliged to obey her master, and so would have had no choice but to follow the orders of Samuel Parris.
She was treated harshly by Parris for refusing to own up to practising witchcraft, and was beaten for allowing the girls to take part in fortune-telling practices, but it's entirely possible that she was also attempting to appeal to the Puritans' way of forgiveness by owning up to her supposed pact with Satan. She had already been imprisoned, so probably thought a confession was her best way of escape. Tituba relied on the strict Puritan belief that if you confessed and repented of your sins, you could still be saved.
In her testimony, Tituba claimed that women have a predisposition towards sin, and because she was a slave, she also had an obligation towards servitude. Also implicated in the charges were Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, who along with Tituba, appeared before the court. Both women denied the charges.
Despite their claim to innocence, Good and Osborne were condemned. Osborne died in jail, and on July 19th, 1692, Sarah Good was one of those hanged at Gallows Hill. Tituba knew the severity of the accusations, and she would have needed a miracle of her own if she was going to survive.
Tituba confessed, repented, and declared her love for Samuel Parris’ daughter Betty. The public began to warm to Tituba, and the jury began to change their sentiment toward her confession, which she eventually rescinded, after claiming it was made under the harsh treatment of Parris. She was spared in her trial, as the Puritan community couldn’t justify executing her after her repentance.
Her ability to win over the villagers was a triumph. On may 9th, 1693, the grand jury refused to indict Tituba due to lack of evidence, but she would still end up serving a 13 month prison sentence in an over-crowded Boston prison, as Samuel Parris refused to pay her bail due to Tituba rescinding her confession. After her trial, she was sold to an unnamed person for the price of the debt.
Tituba then disappears from historical records. She has been immortalized in numerous fictional accounts, and has become one of the most intriguing characters in the Salem witch trials. Although not much of her life was documented, her legacy lives on.
