7 /10 1 Votes7
Cover artist John Wilson Publication date 1964 Originally published 1964 Page count 272 | 3.5/5 Goodreads Language English Pages 272 Country United States of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ISBN 978-0-06-440403-7 Paperback) Genre African-American literature Similar Miss Muriel and other stories, The Narrows, I - Tituba: Black Witch of Salem, The Street, Harriet Tubman Conducto | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tituba of Salem Village is an African-American children's novel by Ann Petry about the 17th-century West Indian slave of the same name who was the first to be accused of practicing witchcraft during the 1692 Salem witch trials. Written for children 10 and up, it portrays Tituba as a black West Indian woman who tells stories about life in Barbados to the village girls. These stories are mingled with existing superstitions and half-remembered pagan beliefs on the part of Puritans, and the witchcraft hysteria is partly attributed to a sort of cabin fever during a particularly bitter winter. Petry's portrayal of the helplessness of women in that period, particularly slaves and indentured servants, is key to understanding her view of the Tituba legend.