Tituba's Confession The Multicultural Dimension Of 1692

In 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, a group of young women began to display erratic and unusual mental and physical behaviour. The manifestation of the unfamiliar symptoms, and Puritan 17th century ideology, initiated a yearning for rationalization for the behaviour. Therefore to explain their behaviour the young women accused the slave woman Tituba of practicing witchcraft and afflicting them. Thus began the Salem Witch Trials.

The Salem, Massachusetts Witch Trials have generated extensive evaluation and interpretation. To explain the events in Salem, psychological, political, environmental, physical, and sociological analysis have all been examined. The authors Linnda Caporael, Elaine Breslaw, Anne Zeller, and Richard Latner all present differing

Breslaw has authored various publications on the history of witchcraft. Her 1997 article “Tituba’s Confession: The Multicultural Dimension of the 1692 Salem Witch Hunt” arguing the cultural significance of Tituba the Indian slave women was of key significance in shaping the historiography of the Salem Witch Trials. Breslaw describes Tituba as essential and pivotal, primarily because of Puritan misunderstanding and misconception about Tituba’s culture and race. Cultural misinterpretation was fundamental in the escalation of the moral panic and hysteria that developed in Salem. Breslaw notes “cultural differences in the use of language made her (Tituba) confession that much easier”. In Breslaw’s analysis, she describes how Tituba essentially confirmed the “Puritan fears, fantasies, and cultural biases.” What resulted was a mass hysteria orchestrated by Tituba’s confession. Breslaw portrays Tituba as a master manipulator who unequivocally influenced the Salem Witch Trials. Breslaw remarks, “Tituba’s testimony was not merely the frightened response of a slave woman but, arguably, a sophisticated manipulation of her interrogators’ deepest fears.” She emphasizes the confession of Tituba “confirmed Puritan anxieties…and distracted her tormentors with the fear of evil.” Breslaw’s use of a multitude of sources including Tituba’s confession transcripts provides a framework to understand the importance of Tituba within the Puritan society.

Richard Latner has researched the Salem Witch Trials extensively. In his article “The Long and Short of Salem Witchcraft: Chronology and Collective Violence in 1692" written in 2008, Latner’s methodology focuses on the time and space of the Salem Witch Hunt. He proposes that a “micro-analysis” of the Salem incident provides insight and negates the idea of Salem as a victim of mass hysteria. Breslaw, Zeller, and Caporael, all argue that mass hysteria was one reason for the events in Salem. Rather Latner focuses his research on “the chronological and geographical scope of the Salem witchcraft outbreak.” He contends that several communities surrounding Salem experienced accusations. However, by focusing on the time and space argument, Latner reveals that “of the twenty-five communities in which recorded accusations occurred, almost half, twelve, involved just one or two people.” This dispels the hysteria argument, and reveals other research has collectively pooled the accusations into one town. Latner extensively refers to primary sources to generate a framework for understanding the extensive geographical context in his