Cousins Betty Parris and Abigail Williams lived together in the Salem Village parsonage, along with Betty’s parents and an enslaved Indigenous woman named Tituba.
There is no evidence that Tituba was involved in these rituals until a neighbor asked her to perform counter-magic intended to discern the identity of the witch harming the children.
Tituba combined rye meal and the girls’ urine, baked the mixture, and fed the resulting “witch-cake” to a dog.
Afterwards, and perhaps due to the power of suggestion from watching this procedure, the scared girls identified Tituba as their tormentor.
The court record detailing Elizabeth How’s case reveals how her own brother-in-law turned against her.
And yet, there were other community members who sought to reign in the spiraling chaos as accusations spun out of control.
The story of Salem has inspired countless artistic and pop culture responses, each version telling the story anew for its own moment. »
