Tituba

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Tituba was a 17th-century slave belonging to Samuel Parris of Salem, Massachusetts. She was one of the first three people accused of practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials which took place in 1692. Tituba was the third person accused by Betty Parris and Abigail Williams of witchcraft. She was, however, the first person to confess to witchcraft in Salem Village. She at first denied that she had anything to do with witchcraft, but was then quickly coerced into confessing to having spoken with the Devil. Betty and Abigail then went on to accuse the other two women, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Other women and men from surrounding villages were accused of witchcraft and arrested at the Salem witchcraft trials. Not only did Tituba accuse others in her confession, but she talked about black dogs, hogs, a yellow bird, red and black rats, cats, and a wolf. Tituba talked about riding sticks to different places. Tituba confessed that Sarah Osborne possessed a creature with a head of a woman, two legs, and wings. By mixing the different views on witchcraft she unintentionally set Salem Village into chaos by hinting that Satan was among them.

Survival

Despite the fact that she confessed to a capital offense and was a slave, Tituba was never tried or executed for her role in the witchcraft trials. She was later released from jail; however, there is no record of where she went after this. Her survival is surprising as confessed witches were normally hanged in New England. This was in agreement with the Biblical verse that the people ought not to suffer a witch to live.

Author William H. Cooke in his book Justice at Salem argued that this change from previous custom helped to spur the witch trial hysteria. Before this time the allegations against others made by witches were not taken seriously, as it was considered to be the devil's evidence. In 1688, another confessed witch, Ann Glover, was executed in Boston after she confessed to witchcraft. Glover accused others as well, possibly including her own daughter, but no additional charges were brought. Cotton Mather even suppressed the accusations made by Glover as he did not believe they could be trusted. Although this break from the past precedence was dangerous and unjustified, Cooke still gave the people of Salem credit for not immediately dismissing the word of this slave and just executing her. However this may not have been done out of any compassion for Tituba or real belief in her claims, but rather because she was used to settle old scores.

Historical debate

The ethnicity of Tituba has been surrounded by controversy from the first historical analysis of her. It was initially assumed that she was of Indian descent. But over time the origins of Tituba have begun to be re-evaluated and old theories have been contested. In Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem, Elaine G. Breslaw writes:

according to local legend, Tituba and her husband, John, “were spoken of as having come from New Spain…that is, the Spanish West Indies, and the adjacent mainland,” is borne out by the record of known slave-capturing activities in South America.^[5]

Breslaw believes that Tituba was an Arawak Indian from Guiana who was either kidnapped and then brought to Barbados or her tribe had migrated there through South America. Veta Smith Tucker 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 (exactly 2 centuries after first contact) Columbus' misnaming had yielded a catchall term variously applied to the Guanahani, the Caribbe, the Aztecs, and West Indies Africans.

Thus Tucker illustrates why we will probably never know where Tituba was really from. 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:

Over the years the magic Tituba practiced 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.

Ethnic background

The race of Tituba has been debated for 150 years. Undoubtedly, the racial politics of the mid-19th century is responsible for this debate. Although all the documents from the Salem Witch Trials that mention Tituba characterize her as an "Indian" (Native American) woman, in the 1860s her race began to change.

In supporting the African origin of Tituba, Veta Smith Tucker claims that Puritan society “…did not perceive African and Indian as thoroughly contrasting racial identities,” and often lumped the two together. According to Smith Tucker, this would explain why 17th century documents labeled Tituba an Indian. However, a simple glance into those same documents proves that Smith’s analysis falls short of reliability. The case of Mary Black, another accused witch of Salem, clearly shows that 17th century Puritans did in fact distinguish Indians and Africans. In the examination of Black, the records states, “mr Samuell parris being desired to take in wrighting the Examination of Mary Black a Negro Woman…” The question posed then is how did Tituba become black over time?

The origins of the debate can be traced to Charles Upham’s Salem Witchcraft, published in 1867. Upham wrote that Tituba and her husband, John Indian, hailed from the Caribbean, or, New Spain as it was called in the 19th century. Because slaves in colonial Spain were allowed to commingle and often entered into sexual relations with each other, scholars began to assume that Tituba was of mixed heritage. In the 1860s and the decades that followed, race relations in the United States had reached one of its lowest points. At a time when blacks were perceived as being inferior in every conceivable way, and often blamed for societal transgressions, it is not hard to see why scholars at the time would imagine Tituba as being, at the very least, ‘tinged’ with African ancestry.

A year after Upham’s contribution, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow went a step further in Giles Corey of the Salem Farms and claimed Tituba was “’the daughter of a man all black and fierce…He was an Obi man, and taught [her] magic.’ Obeah (also spellied Obi) is a specifically African and Afro-American system of magic.” It is generally agreed by scholars since the mid-19th century that Tituba had taught and practiced voodoo with the young girls of Salem. Voodoo is certainly a West African religious rite that was practiced in the Caribbean during the 17th century. To be sure, if Tituba did indeed come from that region, she could have learned some form of voodoo from other slaves. However, this does not necessarily mean that Tituba herself was black. More importantly, there is nothing in the Salem documents that says Tituba practiced voodoo. In fact, in her confession, all of the magic Tituba admitted to having practiced was European in nature, such as signing the Devil’s book.

Further complicating the debate is the name Tituba itself. According to Smith Tucker, 'Tituba' is a Yoruba word. Prominent in Nigeria, Yoruba is an ethnic group which speaks a language of the same name. Smith Tucker points out that titi in Yoruba means 'endless.' Also, the word Tituba in that same language is a verb that means ‘to atone.' However, in the Spanish language, the word titubear means ‘to stammer.’ If Tituba hailed from the Caribbean, or was a native to the South American continent bordering the Caribbean, as Elaine G. Breslaw claims, she could have surely been given a Spanish name. Furthermore, in the 16th century the Spanish identified a tribe of Indians around the Orinoco River that they named “Tibetibe.” Anthropologists also distinguished a group of Arawaks around the Amacura River called the “Tetebetana.”The name Tituba could easily be assumed to originate from any one of the above sources.

Fiction

Tituba, as portrayed in the 19th century by artist Alfred Fredericks in W. C. Bryant's "A Popular History of the United States"

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 was reinforced by the opening scene of The Crucible, which owes much to Marion L. Starkey’s work "The Devil in Massachusetts" (1949).

In the play, Tituba was brought to Salem from Barbados, was taught 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 led to 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 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 1956 book Tituba of Salem Village by Ann Petry. Written for children 10 and up, it portrays Tituba as a black West Indian who tells stories about life in Barbados to the village girls. These stories are mingled with existing superstitions and half-remembered pagan beliefs on the part of Puritans (for instance, it is a white neighbor who makes the witch cake, rather than Tituba herself), and the witchcraft hysteria is partly attributed to a sort of cabin fever during a particularly bitter winter. Petry's portrayal of the helplessness of women in that period, particularly slaves and indentured servants, is key to understanding her take on the Tituba legend.

Tituba also appeared in issue number 131 of Nightwing.