The Accused: The Salem Witch Trials

In the book The Salem Witch Trials, 1692 it was said that Tituba, a slave and Barbados native, confessed to being a witch. She described four other witches but could not name them. Her confession included the statement that she had tried to kill the young girls while in her specter form. In her confession, Tituba described the devil as “...a tall man in a black suit who had a yellow bird, and he carried a book he urged Tituba to sign” (Findling 160). Findling wrote the devil promised Tituba nice rewards if she obeyed him. However, he also threatened to hurt her if she disobeyed him. On February twenty-sixth of the same year, Mary Sibley asked Tituba to make a witch cake. Mary Sibley was the aunt of Mary Walcott who was one of the young girls suffering from hysteria. The cake that Tituba baked was made from children’s urine, baked in a fire, and fed to the dog of the Parris family. The family’s dog was claimed to be a familiar, a messenger to a witch from the devil. Suddenly, the young girls were able to name two other witches, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. The cake was supposedly the reason for the clarification of the witches identities (Findling 160-161). Unlike Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne both denied the claims against them stating that they were witches (Jones n. pag.). All three women were arrested on account of practicing witchcraft (Findling 161). They were

As a child, Tituba was taken captive and sold into slavery. She was between the ages of 12 and 17 when she became a slave in the Parris house.("Tituba") Tituba married another Indian slave, John, in 1689. She also had a daughter, Violet, that lived in the Parris's house with her. According to law2.unmkc.edu, "Tituba made herself a likely target for witchcraft accusations when shortly after Parris's daughter, Betty, began having strange fits and symptoms, she participated in the preparation of a 'witchcake' (a mixture of rye and Betty's urine, cooked and fed to a dog, in the belief that the dog would then reveal the identity of Betty's afflicter." Samuel Parris, Tituba's employer, was extremely angry when he found out about Tituba making the cake, so he beat her until she confessed to being a witch. Tituba was the first Salem witch to confess and she most likely confessed to avoid punishment. In her confession, Tituba named several other witches, which managed to help her avoid going to trial. During the trials, a Tituba tried to recant her earlier confession. This attempted recantation angered Samuel Parris and he refused to get her out of prison. After spending over a year in jail Tituba was bought by an unknown person. It is also unknown what happened to Tituba after she began her new life.

The next character to falsely accuse others of witchcraft is the Barbadian slave Tituba, who accuses others out of fear for her own life. She is a victim of slavery who was forcibly migrated into the colony of Massachusetts. Despite being fully integrated into the daily life of the colonists, she has retained many of her Barbadian customs in which the Salem citizens would view as “sinful”. Because of her alien customs to the people of Salem and her low social status as a black female slave, she is blamed for everything and forced to confess through threats to her life. One example of this is when she gets blamed for “bewitching” a young girl and states: “Tituba, terrified, falls to her knees: No, no, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire

After the accused the women, the city of Salem went crazy. First, it did not help that the doctor could not explain why these things were happening to the girls. Also since Salem was very religious, when someone even thinks the devil can be a cause, they go crazy. As Salem kept tearing itself apart the children were at the head of it. After accusing the first three women the kept accusing more and more, until the court had done hundreds of trials. Also this led to innocent women being killed, because people were paranoid about the devil being in the town. Now if Tituba had not confessed to being a witch, I believe the same events would have happened. The doctor still would have not known what was happening to the girls. Also the devil's

One famous Salem Witch Trial includes the trial of Tituba Indian, the first to be accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. At first she had testified she had never hurt the girls, or wanted in any way to harm them, but later “confessed” she “had been” using witchcraft (Curry pgs 12-13). After Tituba “admitted” she was using witchcraft to harm the girls, the salem villagers had all become deeply frightened with her testimony (Magoon_ pg.46). Most importantly Tituba's Statement suggested that the girls who first accused her of witchcraft were “right” about all the witches. As the questioning went on she began to change her story saying she had no choice, “The Devil came to me and bid me serve him.”. She had also explained that

In the beginning of the play, Tituba, Reverend Parris’ servant, takes Abigail, Betty, and many other girls into the forest. They dance around a fire and Tituba sings songs, seemingly innocent. The day after, people are saying that Tituba is a witch and was performing a black magic ritual. Then later, she is asked to forgive her sins and “call out” the other supposed witches she has seen practicing witchcraft. I don’t think that Tituba is justified in doing this.

National Geographic writer Rosalyn Schanzer has written a terrifying but true story known by the name Witches!; The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem. In the town of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 two girls started to have unexplained fits and lead the town into chaos. The answer that the people came up with was witchcraft. Everyone starts to accuse their friends and family, making them go to trial and it already has lead to the deaths of many people. The trials were very unfair using spectral evidence, the close-minded judges, and the false accusations.

In Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693 people were being accused of witchcraft. This began when a few young girls in a small town known as Salem got a strange illness in February 1962. The young girls

If there isn't a child yet, may his wife never bear one! I know you can do it! Everyone says you are the most awesome of witches!"pg 86 This is what the residents in Salem led to think of Tituba. But was she really a witch, or was she evil like how the Puritans viewed them? Did she use her power to harm people or to comfort people? Did her actions strike sickness or to cure them?

According to Document B, 23 of the 29 accusers were under the age of 21. Due to Puritan beliefs, teenage girls had to stay home and complete chores. According to Evidence Set C, two of the girls, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris, were fed up with it. They started talking to a slave by the name, “Tituba”. Tituba told the girls magical stories and played fortune-telling games with them. The girls began to feel guilty that they went against their religion, so they began accusing Tituba of being a witch. This made the girls feel less guilty, as what they were accusing Tituba of doing was much worse than what they were doing. Other girls from around the village began to join them in accusing outcasts. According to Document D, the girls enjoyed acting bewitched. Their acting certainly tricked the adults. According to Document C, the girls would act bewitched every time the person accused would make a movement such as shake their head, or move their eyes.

The first women to be accused of witchcraft in Salem were seen as different and as social outcasts: Tituba, a slave; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, a sickly old woman who married her servant. These women were unpopular and it was easy to point fingers at them. Gossips and rumors were enough to accuse them. Tituba[3] was a dark skinned slave who lived in the household of the Reverend Samuel Parris. She was familiar with the West Indian Voodoo and practicing magic.

It might appear as if Tituba is the one who is most responsible for the witchcraft hysteria in Salem. Tituba said, “No,no, chicken blood. I give she chicken blood!” (1109). She had given Abigail blood to drink so Abigail could casts a curse that could kill Elizabeth Proctor. If Tituba had never given Abigail the blood, the girls would have never gone to the forest to conjure spirits. Mrs. Putnam said, “Tituba knows how to speak to the dead, Mr. Parris” (1095). Mrs. Putnam had lost seven children soon after their births which made her believe that there was witchcraft involved in the death of her babies. Mrs. Putnam sent her only daughter to go to Tituba to conjure up the spirits of all her dead children. Clearly, if Tituba had not tried to

Tituba was a women considered to be an outcasts of the village since she has very little dignity in being a slave. These false accusations lead Tituba to be condemned to death. This unjust act is only the beginning of a series of false allegations that take control of Salem, as well as the spreading of paranoia and hysteria through the village. This finally results in the deaths of the some of the main characters, such as Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor, for carrying out acts of witchcraft.

Though frowned upon by many in modern society, people considered witchcraft a terrible crime, punishable by death during this period in time. Many scholars in Salem believed that witches actually signed away their soul to the devil in return for earthly favors and special powders (history.com). Tituba, an accused slave girl acknowledged this belief, and confessed to have written her name in blood within the devil’s book. She only evaded execution because she saw others also writing their names in the devil’s book. With Tituba still alive, she could identify other potential witches.

When Abigail accused her of witchcraft, Tituba dined all of the accusations. Unlike Abigail, Tituba did not have a plan to defend herself. She was also not able to control the girls and make them tell the truth. When Tituba was threatened to be hanged, she changed her mentality on the situation. Instead of dining what she had done, she confessed her sins. During her confession, shame affected what she revealed to the others. Tituba said that the devil had control of her, and wanted her to kill Reverend Parris. This was Tituba’s way of admitting that she had thought about killing Reverend Paris. Tituba also took the center of attention off of herself by