Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem

With this important book, Elaine G. Breslaw has "found" Tituba, the elusive, mysterious, and often mythologized Indian woman accused of witchcraft in Salem in 1692 and immortalized in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Reconstructing the life of the slave woman at the center of the notorious Salem witch trials, the book traces Tituba from her likely origins in South America to Barbados, forcefully dispelling the commonly held belief that Tituba was African. The uniquely multicultural nature of life on a seventeenth-century Barbadan sugar plantation - defined by a mixture of English, American Indian, and African ways and folklore - indelibly shaped the young Tituba's world and the mental images she brought with her to Massachusetts. By dividing her biography into two parts, one focusing on Tituba's roots in Barbados, the other on her life in Massachusetts, Breslaw emphasizes the inextricably linked worlds of the Caribbean and the North American colonies, illustrating how the Puritan worldview was influenced by its perception of possessed Indians. Tituba's confession, Breslaw argues, clearly reveals Tituba's savvy and determined efforts to protect herself by actively manipulating Puritan fears. This confession, perceived as evidence of a diabolical conspiracy, was the central agent in the cataclysmic series of events that saw nineteen people executed and over 150 imprisoned, including a young girl of five.