The Enslaved Woman Who Started the Salem Witch Trials

Tituba was an enslaved woman living in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. She was the first person accused in the Salem witch trials. When she was arrested and interrogated she confessed. She named two other women as witches to save herself. Those women named others. Those others named more. The chain of accusations she started killed 20 people and destroyed dozens of lives. Tituba spent over a year in prison. She was never tried. She was eventually sold to pay her jail fees. Nobody recorded who bought her. Nobody recorded what happened to her after that. The trials she started are remembered as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American history. Her name is in every history book. Her fate is in none of them.

Interesting Fact Tituba’s original confession described riding on sticks, seeing cats and a tall man in black who made her sign his book. Historians believe the confession was beaten out of her. She later recanted everything and said her master had forced her to confess. Nobody listened.

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