Tituba of Salem Village

The trial begins. The meetinghouse is crowded. The charges are read that “many persons in several families of this little village have been vexed and tortured in body and soul by witchcraft” (222). Even as the girls shriek, each woman denies trafficking in witchcraft or hurting the girls. The girls go into a frenzy of howls and claim they are being choked and even bark like dogs. When one of the girls mentions the Devil as a tall, black man, suddenly John, sitting in the back, begins to howl and runs about the meetinghouse, running into people and benches. The crowd clamors that he is bewitched.

The presiding judge calls Tituba to testify. As she testifies to her innocence, the girls begin to shriek again. Reverend Parris instructs her to touch the howling Abigail, and the girl quiets down when she does: “It was like magic” (228). Then Reverend Parris offers as evidence the confession he beat out of Tituba. She denies the document, her voice “small and weak” (229). The signed testimony of Abigail is read, testifying that Tituba had afflicted her with headaches and had pinched her, which Tituba admits.