Riley Cochrane
English G
10/16/12
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I was born in 1665 somewhere in South America.
Although I was accused of being a witch, and
admitted to being one. It was not the cause of my
death. Samuel Parris beat me and told me if I
confessed to being a witch he would let me go and
I would no longer be his slave. When I admitted to
this I was not granted my freedom like promised.
Eventually I moved away from Salem Village with
my husband John so the Witch Trials in fact did
not kill me.
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After I had had been released from jail for
confessing to witchcraft I was sold to another
person as a slave.
Samuel Parris refused to pay for my removal
from prison, which ended up in me getting
another owner.
After this point not much is know about my
life, some researchers say that John and I had a
child named Violet that lived with Reverend
Parris, and that I moved away from Salem and
later died.
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When I was about 15 years old I was taken from
my South American home and brought to
Barbados as a slave.
There, I was purchased by a man named Samuel
Parris.
In 1680 I moved to Boston, Massachusetts with Mr.
Parris and another one of his slaves, John Indian.
In 1689 I married John, and at the same time we all
moved to Salem, Massachusetts where Samuel
Parris was going to be the new town pastor.
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I received basically no education throughout
my whole life.
While in South America as a young child I did
not learn in a formal school.
When I was captured and sold as a slave in my
teen years I also didn’t receive any formal
education.
My background as a slave gave me no formal
education at all, but I was educated in old
Caribbean magic and fortune telling games.
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I was responsible for taking care of the three Parris
children, Thomas, Betty, and Susahanna because
Elizabeth Parris, the Reverend’s wife, was often sick.
I would entertain the children at night by telling them
stories bout magic, and playing fortune telling games
that I learned in the Caribbean.
Betty’s cousin, Abigail Williams would often join the
large group of girls that would come and watch me tell
stories and play games.
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These girls from the Salem Village got the
nickname of being members of the “circle
girls”.
I should not have been playing these games
with Betty, Abigail, and her friends, because it
was against the Puritan
religion to learn or even
talk about witchcraft
related items.
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Spending my childhood years in the Caribbean,
I learned the practices of that region, and
voodoo was very popular.
Although not a religion it was one of the
practices that I might have leaned as a child.
This corresponds with the fact that my voodoo
is what caused Reverend Parris’ children to
experience fits of hysterics, caused by my
forbidden beliefs.
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I was famously the first person to be accused of
being a witch during the Salem Witch Trials.
Also I was the first person to admit to being a
witch in the Salem Village.
I was accused by Betty Parris, Elizabeth Parris,
and Abigail Williams after they started to have
strange symptoms which could only be
described as provoked by witchcraft.
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I didn’t want to be the only one accused of
being a witch, so I mentioned that Sarah Good
and Sarah Osborne were my partners in
witchcraft.
Many people in the town believed that I had
used my Caribbean voodoo to teach these girls
fortune telling games.
But the fortune telling skills I taught the girls
were actually common New England practices,
and were not some forbidden Caribbean
rituals.
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Because Betty Parris had accused me of being a
witch, Reverend Parris beat me until I
confessed to a crime that I was not a part of.
I was put into jail for admitting to being a
witch , but I was lucky enough never to get a
trial, which I would have most definitely lost.
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"Salem Witch Trials - The People - Tituba DiscoverySchool.com." Salem Witch Trials - The People Tituba - DiscoverySchool.com. Discovery Education, n.d.
Web. 15 Oct. 2012.
<http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladvent
ures/salemwitchtrials/people/tituba.html>.
FAQ's About The Salem Witch Trials. Salem Witch
Museum, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/education/fa
q.shtml>.
"Witches of Massachusetts." LegendsofAmerica.com. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ma-witchest.html>.