I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem

Maryse Condé originally published in 1986 in French as, Moi, Tituba, Sorciere…Noire de Salem, the book quickly won the French Grand Prix award for women’s literature.  It was then translated into English in 1992 by Richard Philcox as I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem.  The English translation includes a forward by Angela Davis, who calls the book an “historical novel about the black witch of Salem.”  This is not true in the literal sense. Condé's novel contains many historical accuracies, and the excerpt of Tituba’s court deposition comes straight from the original records.  There are also many fabrications that have no historical basis, such as Tituba’s race, and Tituba’s interactions with Hester Prynne, from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. These allusions have literary purposes that correlate to the book's major themes.   

After surviving the Salem Witch Trials, the historical Tituba disappears from all records.  It is here that Condé says, “I myself have given her an ending of my own choosing,” adding that she was inspired by “the legendary ‘Nanny of the Maroons’”.

Plot Synopsis

According to her novel, Tituba is biracial, born to a young African slave woman after her rape by an English sailor.  Tituba’s mother is hanged after defending herself from the sexual advances of her white owner.  Tituba is run off the plantation and becomes a maroon, having no owner, but not able to connect to society.  She grows up living with an old spiritual herbalist named Mama Yaya, learning about traditional healing methods.  She falls in love and marries a slave, John Indian, willing returning to slavery on his behalf.  Shortly thereafter, Tituba and John Indian are sold to Samuel Parris, the infamous Puritan clergyman who pioneered the Salem Witch Trials.  Parris takes Tituba and John Indian to Boston, then Salem Village, where Tituba is accused of witchcraft and arrested.  It is here that Conde takes obvious liberties with the novel; Tituba is thrown into a cell with a pregnant Hester Prynne, straight out of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter.

Tituba survives the Salem Witch Trials by confessing, and is sold to a Jewish Merchant, Benjamin Cohen d’Azevedo. She cares for Benjamin and his nine children until the Puritans set fire to the house, killing all the children. He decides to set her free, and sends her back to Barbados.  Tituba initially stays with a group of maroons, even sleeping with their leader, Christopher, who dreams of immortality.  She then returns to the shack where she had lived with Mama Yaya, working as a healing herbalist for the slaves in the area.  The slaves soon bring her a young man, Iphigene, who they thought would die, but Tituba is able to nurse him back to health.  He quickly forms plans for a revolt against the plantation owners.  The night before the revolt, they are arrested, and everyone involved is hanged. Tituba and Iphigene join the spirit realm, inciting future revolts whenever possible.