I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem

Tituba begins, “My real story starts where this one leaves off and it has no end” (175). She recounts her spirit’s adventures on the island, healing and curing others—and primarily helping Iphigene, her “son and lover [and] companion for eternity” (175), to incite revolutions and insurrections.

Having died without giving birth, Tituba is allowed to choose a descendant, a girl named Samantha. She teaches her the secrets of the invisible world. Her one regret is being separated from Hester, who is on the other side of the ocean, “pursuing her dreams of creating a world of women that will be more just and humane” (178).

About America, Tituba declares:

A vast, cruel land where the spirits only beget evil! Soon they will be covering their faces with hoods, the better to torture us. They will lock up our children behind the heavy gates of the ghettos. They will deny us our rights and blood will beget blood (177-78).

About her present-day existence and that of the reader, she proclaims:

I can understand the past, read the present, and look into the future. Now I know why there is so much suffering and why the eyes of our people are brimming with water and salt.