Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem

Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies

Author: Elaine G. Breslaw
ISBN: 9780814712276

In this important book, Elaine Breslaw claims to have rediscovered 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 follows 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.Breslaw divides Tituba’s story into two parts. The first focuses on Tituba's roots in Barbados, the second on her life in the New World. The author emphasizes the inextricably linked worlds of the Caribbean and the North American colonies, illustrati

Publisher: NYU Press
Publish Date: 1996

Subjects: History / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775), History / United States / State & Local / New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT), History / World, Body, Mind & Spirit / Witchcraft, Social Science / Folklore & Mythology

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Biography/Autobiography)