The Salem Witch Trial is a historically located incident stirred by the accusations of an Indian slave woman, named Tituba, who confessed to the practice of witchcraft under the pressure and physical force of colonial slave owners in 1692. She escaped execution, unlike many accused women, because of her ability to acclimate to the culture and society of her oppressors. In Breslaw’s portrait of Tituba’s life starting with her ambiguous Amerindian-Caribbean roots, she shows how Tituba’s first step in acclimating to British-colonial society was to force her mother tongue to take a backseat to the language introduced and enforced by English colonizers who captured “American Indians to sell as slaves in Barbados” for the purpose of providing slave labor to British colonies in …show more content…
The disglossia present during the seventeenth-century when Caribbean Islands were being colonized was one that placed the English language above all other languages. The English language was associated with civilization, while all other native languages of the Island and of the slaves were seen as symbols of savagery. Although Tituba was no longer an inhabitant of Barbados after she was sold into the slave trade, she carried that sense of disglossia with her when she moved into the Parris household in Massachusetts in 1689.2 This sense of knowing when to use the English while living in the Puritan community was ultimately the reason for her survival. The fact that she knew when and where to use the English language, especially while giving her testimony in the trials in 1692, afforded her the power to go undetected where her white counterparts who were accused of witchcraft did
An arrest warrant was issued out against for Tituba Indian in Salem Village on February 29, 1692. There were also arrest warrants out for Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. All three of these women were accused of witch craft and examined the day after they were captured. They were examined at Nathaniel Ingersoll’s tavern in the Salem Town. This examination was performed by Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne.
On February 29, 1692, issued warrants were released for Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba for witchcraft. Good, a beggar, and Osborne, a poor elderly woman, both claimed they were innocent and Tituba, a Caribbean slave from Elizabeth Parris’ family, confessed to being a witch. Tituba not only confessed to doing witchcraft but that there was a whole coven of witches in Salem, making her not the only one. Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams were experiencing tremors, spasms, fits and crying while throwing things. All of this made everyone suspicious about witchcraft.
The Crucible contains a plethora of flawed and victimised characters who all contribute to the seemingly endless drama held within the town of Salem. In the beginning of the story, there are some characters who are comfortable with their town before things take a turn for the worst. However, when one has been enslaved to follow the orders of an irrational owner, one should know that they would be the exception. This just so happens to be Tituba.
Salem, Massachusetts in 1691 and 1692 was a frightening place to be. In January 1692, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris became ill, beginning a several-months-long crusade against the devil and those who were believed to be in league with him, including Parris’ Indian slave, Tituba. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 was a prime example of what happens when religious fanaticism and rampant hysteria combine with superstition about the religious rituals of those outside of Christianity. The effects of the Salem Witch Trials continue to interest people over three-hundred years later, spawning several movies and television shows incorporating some aspect of the trials within them.
Tituba is most blamed for the Salem Witch Trials. Tituba was a slave from Barbados, where she was raised to gain the knowledge to invoke spirits as something she had no option to, now Tituba has to deal with the consequences through Gullibility, crudity, and Ignorance which all led her to be accused and responsible for the witch-hunt. Tituba was a slave that came from Barbados, and now is a slave in Salem, Massachusetts. Many specifics about her life are really unknown. Tituba later worked for Reverend Parris.
The Salem Witch Trials Do you believe in witchcraft? The people in the dreadful, horrific, gruesome salem witch trials did. The Salem witch trials were a horrendous time in history. They were a time when many people, mostly women were accused of being witches. Some were killed others imprisoned.
What Caused the Salem Witch Trials Hysteria of 1692? In Exodus 22:18, it proclaims, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!” In 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, the Puritans believed every word that the Bible said, causing the death of twenty people because they were accused of witchcraft. What caused the panic and alarm that lead to the death of twenty people in Salem?
French novelist Maryse Condé’s novel, I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (1992), tells the fictional story of Tituba, a black slave from Barbados who is eventually tried for Witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts during the early stages of the Salem Witch Trials. Condé’s Tituba is based on a real historical figure, though the novel’s rendition of her life is largely its own character, created with little documentation of historical fact. Narrated in the first person, Tituba tells of her life story, which seems to be frequently conformed by other characters in the novel that subsequently cause Tituba to behave in a performative manor. Within these moments, the novel also mocks the narratives that try to conform Tituba’s story, and only in death does
that mentioned her after this point in time. the Reverend Paris said he would pay the fee to get Tituba out of prison. Colony rules stated that even when someone is found innocent, you still must pay for the resources used while you were in jail. The expenses included an imprisonment fee and the cost to feed them as well. They could not be released unless these fees were paid for.
Doctor William Griggs declared all those afflicted bewitched and the village agreed with this statement. Indian slave couple Tituba and John were accused in the making of the witch-cake which all those afflicted had had. Tituba was reverend Parris slave, caretaker of Abigail and Betty. February 25 and 28 Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good also accused as the tormentors. The first three women to be accused witches were not originally born in Salem and Tituba was also linked towards the Indian war.
The Salem witch trials are an outstanding example of a dysfunction in a “perfect” society. Tituba as part of that society helps us understand the simpleness of a complex shaped idea. Notwithstanding that Tituba is considered irrelevant during the Salem trials, nevertheless Tituba exposes European perceptions of Native Americans as a basis for cultural superiority and oppression, since Tituba is an indisputable symbol of injustice, of an ignominious drama, slavery, racism, as well as the defamation of a culture. The decisions that Tituba made throughout her trial, contributed in a substantial magnitude to the American history that’s known nowadays.
Carol Karlsen 's The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England provides a sociological and anthropological examination of the witchcraft trends in early New England. By examining the records, Karlsen has created what she suggests was the clichéd 'witch ' based on income, age, marital status, etc. She argues that women who had inherited or stood to inherit fairly large amounts of property or land were at particular risk, as they "stood in the way of the orderly transmission of property from one generation of males to the next." These women, Karlsen suggests, were targeted largely because they refused to accept "their place" in colonial society.
Tituba was slave of Reverend Samuel Parris, Reverend Parris called a doctor to examine his daughter and his niece and the doctor told him that the girls were “victims of witchcraft”. Tituba was later accused of being a witch, she was one of the first three women to be accused. Tituba was from an island in the caribbean called Barbados, Reverend Parris purchased Tituba on the Island. Many people thought that Tituba was a Native American because of her skin color. Her skin color can also be the reason why she was accused of being a witch, some may say that Tituba was used a scapegoat.
A slave brought to the Americas from Barbados, Tituba is a naive, and significant character overlooked in Puritan Society. She caused the uproar of witchcraft making Tituba responsible for the mass hysteria that occurred in Salem. Brought to Salem from Barbados, Tituba began working as Reverend Parris slave. Following her culturally rooted background, Tituba brought along a group of girls into the woods to start casting spells, and perform “black magic.” Eventually in the story the girls are found dancing in the woods by Reverend Parris and the blame is amongst Tituba.
The Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692 may have been instigated by religious, social, geographic and even biological factors. During these trials, 134 people were condemned as witches and 19 were hanged. These statistics also include 5 more deaths that occurred prior to their execution date. It is interesting to look into the causes of this stain on American History, when as shown in document B, eight citizens were hanged in only one day.