Traditionally, the allegedly afflicted girls are said to have been entertained by Parris ' slave woman, Tituba, who supposedly taught them about voodoo in the kitchen of the parsonage during the winter of 1692, although there is no contemporary evidence to support the story.

It is gradually revealed that she had been dancing in the woods with the girls of Salem and performing voodoo rituals with her uncle's slave, Tituba.

He is also a character in the book " Tituba of Salem Village " by Ann Petry, another work of fiction relating to the witch trials.

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.

This however is not the only reason for the scholarly debate over the identity of Tituba.

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 magic .’ Obeah ( also spelled 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.

More importantly, there is nothing in the Salem documents that says Tituba practiced voodoo.

Further complicating the debate is the name Tituba itself.

According to Smith Tucker, ' Tituba ' is a Yoruba word.

' Also, the word Tituba in that same language is a verb that means ‘ to atone.

Tituba is the protagonist of the novel I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem ( 1986 ) by Maryse Condé.

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.

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.

The girls named three townswomen as witches-Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osbourne ; Tituba confessed to having seen the devil and also stated that there was a coven of witches in the Salem Village area.

Tituba is also a character in The Witch's Children ( 1987 ) by Patricia Clapp.

Tituba also appeared in issue number 131 of Nightwing.

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.

* 1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.

The events that led to the Salem witch trials began when his daughter Betty Parris, and her cousin Abigail Williams, accused the family's slave Tituba, and Sarah Good of witchcraft.

* Tituba of Salem Village ( 1955 )

Tituba was a 17th-century slave belonging to Samuel Parris of Salem, Massachusetts.

Tituba was one of the first to be accused of practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials which took place in 1692.

In Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem, Elaine G. Breslaw writes:

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.

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.

Later in the novel Samuel Parris and his slave Tituba move to Salem.

Tituba appears in Lara Parker's novel " The Salem Branch " ( 2012 ) ( 2nd part of Lara Parker's Dark Shadows series ) which is partly set in colonial New England, during the time of the Trials.

Hansen claimed Mather acted as a moderating influence in the trials by opposing the death penalty for those who confessed — or feigned confession — such as Tituba and Dorcas Good.

Parris, his niece Abigail Williams and several other girls reveal that the girls, including Abigail and Betty, were engaged in heretical activities in a nearby forest, apparently led by Tituba, Parris's slave from Barbados.

This 19th-century representation of " Tituba and the Children " by Alfred Fredericks, originally appeared in A Popular History of the United States, Vol.

They began when a group of girls ( Betty Parris, her cousin Abigail Williams, and several others ) gathered in the evenings in the home of Reverend Parris to listen to stories told by one of his slaves, Tituba.

When his father died in 1673, Samuel left Harvard to take up his inheritance in Barbados, where he maintained a sugar plantation and bought two Carib slaves to tend his household, one by the name of Tituba Indian and the other John Indian.

Tituba was the first person accused by Betty Parris and Abigail Williams of witchcraft.

The ethnicity of Tituba has been surrounded by controversy from the first historical analysis of her.

Since there was no clear distinction by the Puritans on the racial differences between Natives, Africans, and slaves, it remains hard to identify Tituba ’ s origin.

Over the years the magic Tituba practiced has been changed by historians and dramatists from English, to Native, to African.

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

With the original intention of covering up their own sinful deeds, Tituba was the one to be accused by Abigail, who had in fact drunk from a magic cup Tituba made to kill John Proctor's wife, Elizabeth, and to bewitch him into loving her.

Tituba appears in the novel Calligraphy of the Witch ( 2007 ) by Alicia Gaspar de Alba.