Tituba of Salem Village

This is a book that is fictional but based on facts about Tituba, the black slave in Salem who was one of the first three to be involved in the witch craze there.

The story starts off by telling how she and her husband, John Indian, were sold by their mistress to Reverend Parris of Salem. This was a time, of course, when there were slaves that could be bought and sold at an owner's whim.

They take up residence in Boston when they arrive from the Barbados. John also sees a witch hanging take place. Parris finally gets a job in Salem Village (no one in Salem Town wanting him), and they move to the parsonage.

In this version of events, Abigail is the troublemaking one of the bunch. Betsey is a girl with some kind of psychological problem or something; she seems to go into trances or blackouts or narcolepsy.

The book then goes through the gradual building of anti-witch hysteria in the village, the arrests, the trials, and the aftermath.

The book is very interesting to read, and gives a person a very realistic view of what actually happened. There is at least one area where something happens that did not really occur, and there is some information on what happened to Tituba after the trials and the hysteria were over which I have not read anywhere else.

Also, most of the book deals with the events prior to the trials; the trials themselves take up only a small portion of the book. It almost seems a little rushed at the end.


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