Tituba, before 1680-after April 1693

Tituba, written by Alyssa Barillari; Many interpretations of the Salem Trials acknowledge the pivotal role Tituba's confession played in legitimizing the early suspicions and subsequent investigations of witchcraft, seizing on the vivid descriptions of the devil and his minions that she provided to the examining justices. A number of sources also assert that Tituba also introduced supernatural ideas to the "afflicted girls." These scholars claim Reverend Parris had purchased her in Barbados, unaware of the voodoo and witchcraft practices she would eventually undertake under the roof of the Salem parsonage ...

Tituba the Witch; also known as The Queen Mother of Soil.

The pivotal accuser at the trials, Tituba, would go down in history as a purveyor of satanic magic; We know her only as Tituba. She belonged to Samuel Parris, the minister in whose household the witchcraft erupted; his daughter and niece were the first to convulse. Although she was officially charged with having practiced witchcraft on four Salem girls between January and March, we do not know precisely why Tituba was accused. Especially close to 9-year-old Betty Parris, she had worked and prayed alongside the family for years, for at least a decade in Boston and Salem. She took her meals with the girls, beside whom she likely slept at night. Tituba may have sailed from Barbados in 1680 with Parris, then still a bachelor and not yet a minister. Though likely a South American Indian, her origins are unclear.

Tituba (fl. 1680, Tibito-April 1693), also known as Tituba the Witch, was the first girl to be accused of practicing witchcraft during the 1692 Salem witch trials. She was enslaved and owned by Samuel Parris of Danvers, Massachusetts. Although her origins are debated, research has suggested that she was a South American native from Tibitó of the Carib tribe and sailed from Barbados to New England with Samuel Parris.[2] Little is known regarding Tituba's life prior to her enslavement. It is said she was named after the tribe or town she came from. She became a pivotal figure in the witch trials when she confessed to witchcraft while also making claims that both Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne participated in said witchcraft. She was imprisoned and later released by Samuel Conklin.