Purloined Identity

Abstract

In 1692 in village of Salem, Massachusetts and its environs between months of March and October, more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and arrested. Of con- victed, 19 were hanged, 1 was pressed to death under plank over- laid with heavy stones, and 4 died in prison waiting to be sentenced. The catalyst for panic in Massachusetts Bay Colony was Tituba Indian, slave woman. Considering primary role Tituba played in these events, official histories pay little attention to her. Indeed, story of Tituba's life is not recorded in histories of Salem witch trials. Those who assumed authority to record these events found it completely acceptable to omit biography of Tituba, Salem's first witness and confessor. The judicial record describes Tituba as a slave originating from West Indies and probably practicing 'hoodoo.' From modern standpoint, this description invites intense interrogation, but it prompted no further elaboration from 17th-century Puritan minds. By contrast, however, judicial records provide detailed documenta- tion of Tituba's bizarre testimony of night rides on pole to and from Boston to participate in satanic ceremonies. Beyond her testi- mony, however, there is only silence, and if, as Breslaw (1996, p. 132) writes, the magistrates interpreted details of (Tituba's) confes - sion as proof that diabolic presence had invaded their commu- nity, why were motives of principal witness unexamined? This omission reveals great deal about Tituba's Puritan accusers. Puritan authorities banished Tituba from them and from conscious-

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