An enslaved Guyanese Obeah woman, Tituba practiced “black magic.” One day, foolish white girls tried copying her magic, casting a spell that went horribly wrong. Terrified, they accused Tituba of bewitching them. Tituba was beaten and forced into making a false confession.
Tituba’s confession lasted two days, and included lurid details of signing the devil’s book and flying through the air. She accused other men and women in the town of doing the same. These accusations resulted in the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Hundreds of townspeople were accused of witchcraft; 25 died in prison or were hanged. But what happened to Tituba?
Eventually she confessed she’d had to lie to save herself. She was thrown in jail. Thirteen months later, she disappeared from history. Was this her final trick?
The trickster character appears throughout African Diasporic folklore. Tricksters played tricks as a form of resistance, survival, and most importantly, as a reminder to their oppressors that nothing could take their liberation from them. These stories greatly influenced our enslaved ancestors, and they found numerous ways to trick their enslavers to resist oppression and to survive. While many tricks were harmless, tricksters were prepared to use their wits to resist by any means necessary.
While we might never know what happened to Tituba, she lives on as the ultimate trickster of 17th-century Salem. Centuries later, her legacy reminds us that sometimes, a trick comes with a treat: liberation.