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“ | Save your pity. You understand nothing. It is not revenge I seek any more than a surgeon seeks revenge on the carcinoma he removes. You people are the carcinoma. You cannot hate the Puritans more than I. Were it only a matter of Puritans. They are but one tiny tribe of you criminals, murderers, and hypocrites. You set out from your lands to discover the world... as if the world wasn't known to the people who lived there. Every place you people set foot on this earth is a crime! And then you have the audacity to complain when others would dare to treat you with the same cold, calculating slaughter that you have dealt every other people in this world. Believe it or not, I am truly sorry that you must be lost in the storm... but I know you, Mary. You are too smart not to see that what is coming is no crime, but justice. Cruel perhaps, but justice. | ” |
— Tituba to Mary Sibley
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Tituba was a very powerful witch who served as a handmaiden to George and Mary Sibley at The House of the Seven Gables. Abducted and enslaved as an innocent child, Tituba became a witch as a means to avenge the molestation and murder of her family as well as to free herself from the cruel and inhumane oppression that she endured from the Europeans. Later in life, Tituba became even more powerful after she was imbued with the powers of a Seer.
Tituba is portrayed by actress Ashley Madekwe.
Early Life
Originally from the Arawak tribe, Tituba was born and raised in a South American village before she was abducted from her homeland and sold into slavery. Tituba explained how the Europeans invaded her village and murdered most of the men who lived there, including her father. Before the Europeans brought Tituba to the New World, the Puritans forced Tituba to watch as they raped her mother and sisters. Tituba claims that she too would have been raped, had she not have been a child. Soon after that, Tituba was sold into slavery where she was abused and neglected by all of her masters, except for the Walcotts. Tituba implies that in spite of the cruelty that her masters inflicted upon her, they still raised her by the Christian Bible, where she was brought up to believe that the Christian God was an all-powerful and benevolent God who loved all of his creations, including her. However, Tituba claims that in spite of her faith in the Christian God, whenever she would cry out for God to save her, he never did. It wasn't until the Kanaima appeared to Tituba in the woods that her life changed for the better. Not only did the Kanaima care for Tituba throughout the rest of her childhood into adulthood, but he empowered her and taught her everything there was to know about witchcraft.
Personality
Tituba is an ambitious, determined and cunning witch whose desire for revenge and thirst for justice stemmed from the horrors endured in her life. Reduced into slavery and forced to watch the rapes and murders of her family perpetrated by colonizers, Tituba found a powerful confident in the Dark Lord, and self-affirmation in witchcraft.
Knowledgeable in the Old Ways, and described as capable of even the most dangerous practices by the elders of the Essex Hive, Tituba is also an expert in detecting the darkest and perverse desires of those around her and to use them to her own advantage. She is also able to predict potential dangers long before they happen, relying both on her clairvoyant abilities and on the experience of human behaviour. For example, when Tituba identified both Mercy and Anne as serious threats to Mary's success.
Tituba is a skilled strategist, pulling strings in the shadows. Her strength, however, is also her weakness, as she has no real allies. Therefore, she found herself repeatedly in the unfortunate situation of having to manipulate for her advantage unfavorable events, even to the detriment of people for whom she felt sincere affection. This is the case of Mary Sibley, who Tituba has deceived and instructed in witchcraft in order to complete the Grand Rite. By lying about the fate of Mary's unborn child and the death of John Alden, Tituba ensured that Mary was left heartbroken and bitter, as adviced by the Samhain Rose Browning. Unfortunately for her, the deceits backfired, bringing Tituba and Mary to a rift that never healed, particularly after the Countess Von Marburg shed light on an even more sinister lie.
As a servant, Tituba had the advantage of being able to hear conversations without arousing attention, as when she was able to intercept Countess Von Marburg's threats against her ally at that time, Mary.
It is noteworthy that Tituba has been able to come to terms with her own sexuality, thanks to the sexual freedom inherent in witchcraft. Tituba, in fact, admitted that she has never experienced any interest in men and has repeatedly given voice to her deep feelings of love for Mary.
Physical Appearance
Tituba is a tall beautiful young woman with a light-brown complexion, dark brown eyes and medium length brown hair that is naturally curly. She has a slim physique and usually wears plain dresses in a variety of dark colors such as black, dark blues and burgundy. She normally wears minimal jewelry, usually only a pair of small earrings.
Throughout the Salem Series
SEASON ONE | ||
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SEASON TWO | ||
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SEASON THREE | ||
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Powers and Abilities
Tituba is a powerful witch who has successfully manipulated all the events leading up to the completion of the Grand Rite through her "mistress" Mary Sibley. Tituba is also one of the two known witches beside Countess Marburg to have been taught witchcraft directly by the Devil himself, when she was still a child.
She has shown herself to be knowledgeable and skilled in various practices of witchcraft and unlike Mary who is occasionally reckless in her practices, Tituba understands the limits of her abilities. This is due to the fact that Tituba has taught Mary most of her skills, implying that all of Mary's abilities are also Tituba's abilities, though she relies on them less often. She is also learned in the history of ancient witches and European hives and easily figured that Anne is a Cradle witch of a powerful bloodline. According to her hive, Tituba is the most gifted necromancer among their witches, though unknown to them she also taught Mary the same practices. Tituba's noteworthy skills in necromancy were invoking the spirit of William Hooke by using his skinned face and a rabbit as a sacrifice.
Tituba is also the one who usually sends Mary to the Sabbaths and the one who presides over her body. She is also the one capable of sending witches into a dream-walking trance as she often did with Mary when the latter needed her aid. Tituba was also shown to be highly skilled in illusion spells fueled purely by her sheer will as seen when she caused John to believe that Petrus' corpse was talking to him. During their sexual intercourse, she was able to glamour herself as Mary, in order to manipulate John. Along with Mary, Tituba has practiced several powerful spells, such as the one to locate and link Corwin to the head of a ram, which the two used to kill him. With Mary's aid, Tituba was also able to transform the former's familiar into a bird. As seen with other witches, Tituba demonstrated an inhuman durability as she seemed to heal quickly from the tortures inflicted upon her by Increase Mather.
It was also said that she practiced divination in order to locate John for Mary, though nothing came of this. It is possible that after her ingestion of Petrus' eyes, her psychic powers have increased drastically as he served as the hive's seer. Tituba also had some form of control over the elements, as seen when she was able to hold hot coals without inflicting any harm on herself.
She is one of the most powerful witches of the Essex Hive, having taught and made Mary into the powerful witch she is and initiating her into witchcraft in the first place.
Despite having left behind the lustful Malice for a short period of time, to pursue a sort of cunning craft enough strong to match witchcraft, Tituba proved to be equally and remarkably capable of performing rituals and spells, even able to hinder a spell cast by the Devil himself. As the seer, Tituba knows the past, present, and future of whoever she wishes. Her psychic abilities are also increased by the support of a familiar that she herself infused with magical powers, a black cat that allows her to reach long distances and spy on her enemies. Worthy of note is also the ability to project herself anywhere she desires and assuming the aspect that most pleases her, healing wounds and scars and appearing at the peak of her beauty. In addition to projection, obtained without falling into a paralysis, Tituba is also a mistress of teleportation.
Relationships
- Main article: Mary and Tituba
That between Tituba and the Dark Lord, often referred to as Kenaima by her, is a long consolidated covenant and she's believed to be taught the art of Witchcraft by the Devil himself. Their alliance has always been lasting until, tired of serving the Devil without ever getting her desired revenge, Tituba asked for a further covenant with the Dark Lord, in which he committed himself to respect the agreements. Tituba has always been a faithful servant, despite the Devil disfigured her face for triggering her visions as a Seer.
- Main article: Mercy and Tituba
The relationship between Mercy and Tituba was non-existent up until Mary turned Mercy into a witch (The Red Rose and the Briar).
At times their relationship was antagonistic due to Tituba's possessiveness of Mary and their relationship finally came to a breaking point when Mercy cast a spell to gain control of Tituba's familiar to silence George Sibley to protect Mary from Increase Mather. She later accused Tituba of witchcraft leading to her arrest and torture. Tituba enacted her revenge on the girl by telling Increase that Mercy was now a witch, forcing Mercy to go into hiding.
- Main article: Tituba and John
- To Be Added!
Appearances
Season One | |||
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Episode | Appearance Status | ||
The Vow | Appears | ||
The Stone Child | Appears | ||
In Vain | Appears | ||
Survivors | Appears | ||
Lies | Appears | ||
The Red Rose and the Briar | Appears | ||
Our Own Private America | Appears | ||
Departures | Appears | ||
Children Be Afraid | Absent | ||
The House of Pain | Appears | ||
Cat And Mouse | Absent | ||
Ashes Ashes | Absent | ||
All Fall Down | Appears |
Season Two | |||
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Episode | Appearance Status | ||
Cry Havoc | Appears | ||
Blood Kiss | Appears | ||
From Within | Appears | ||
Book of Shadows | Appears | ||
The Wine Dark Sea | Appears | ||
Ill Met by Moonlight | Appears | ||
The Beckoning Fair One | Appears | ||
Dead Birds | Appears | ||
Wages of Sin | Appears | ||
Til Death Do Us Part | Absent | ||
On Earth as in Hell | Appears | ||
Midnight Never Come | Appears | ||
The Witching Hour | Appears |
Season Three | |||
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Episode | Appearance Status | ||
After the Fall | Appears | ||
The Heart Is A Devil | Appears | ||
The Reckoning | Appears | ||
Night's Black Agents | Appears | ||
The Commonwealth of Hell | Appears | ||
Wednesday's Child | Appears | ||
The Man Who Was Thursday | Appears | ||
Friday's Knights | Appears | ||
Saturday Mourning | Appears | ||
Black Sunday | Appears |
Memorable Quotes
- Tituba (to Mary Sibley): "Do not fear the woods."
- — The Vow
- ______________________________
- Tituba (to Increase Mather): "You cannot know what I have done, or who I served, until you know why."
- — The House of Pain
- ______________________________
- Tituba (to Increase Mather): "I am not a witch. I am not a puritan. I am of the Arawak tribe. Or I once was. But I close my eyes, and I can still see the green of my jungle and the deadly white of the Englishmen's faces. I had never seen skin like that, so white when we see them walking towards us, we think they are ghosts. Slavers. They slaughtered many of our men, chained the rest, and have their way with the women. I am too young to be of use to them, but my mother and sisters are not. And they forced me to watch. Later, in chains, I look back, and they're burning the huts of my village, and I see two red eyes staring back at me, out of the trees. And the red eyes speak to me, "Tituba, you are mine.""
- — The House of Pain
- _________________________________
- Tituba (to Increase Mather): "And who started this war between Puritans and witches? The mighty many of you? Or the scattered few of them?"
- — The House of Pain
- ________________________________
- Increase Mather: "When exactly did you sell your soul to the Devil? "
- Tituba: "My body was bought and sold many times, but never my soul, not until I came to Salem. I am a child in a cage, given less to eat than the animals on the ship. I fear I will never see the sun again. And then a man comes. It was he that brought me to Salem, only to be bought and sold again. I am sold from hand to hand, from man to man. But at least I am no longer in a cage. And my final owner is not cruel. The Walcotts give me a bed to sleep in. Their girl child, Mary, treats me almost like a sister. But still at night, I weep for my mother, and I ride a river of tears out of my straw bed, into the dark woods."
- Increase Mather: "The dark woods? Who do you meet in the dark woods? "
- Tituba: "The Kenaima. He has come to save me. Save all of us. He draws to him all who hurt, all who hide, all who hate, all who thirst for justice, gathers us into the circle and promises us a leader, a savior, one who will crush our enemies with a mighty fist. And he keeps his promise!"
- — The House of Pain
- __________________________________
- Tituba (to Increase Mather): "Don't you see? There are no witches. There are only poor people like me who are hunted and harried. Tortured and slaughtered and for no reason other than they are not you!"
- — The House of Pain
- __________________________________
- Tituba: "I, traitor? I, who have endured the worst that sick man could inflict upon my flesh to protect you? I think not. 'Tis you who have betrayed those who nurtured you. You who have turned your back on everything we have planned these long years!"
- — Dead Birds
- ___________________________________
- Tituba (to Mary): "Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but your sacrifice accomplished precisely nothing Saved no one, least of all John Alden.If you want to save the life of your love, it is not enough to kill yourself. You must kill your son."
- — The Heart Is A Devil
- ___________________________________
- Tituba (to John Alden): "How frustrating. I must save the world through two stubborn fools that only want to save each other."
- — The Heart Is A Devil
- ___________________________________
- Cotton Mather: "I know you. You are a witch."
- Tituba: "Whatever I be, if I served him would I have saved you? Come."
- — Night's Black Agents
- ___________________________________
- Tituba (to the Devil): "I have resurrected and delivered Mary Sibley to you. I have kept John Alden far from your door. And then, I sent you Cotton Mather when all your other witches failed. I have earned my reward and my vengeance! "
- The Dark Lord: "Indeed, you have. And all shall be as we agreed once you arrange this one last matter."
- Tituba: "One more? And then another and another and another. I've served you because it was to our mutual benefit. But you make me a pact here now. I will do one last errand for you, and you will deliver on all your promises to me."
- The Dark Lord: "And how shall we seal our pact? "
- Tituba: "In blood. "
- — The Commonwealth of Hell
- ___________________________________
Gallery
Season One
Season Two
Season Three
Videos
Trivia
- Historically it is unknown if Tituba was of Native American or African descent.
- Since in the first season Tituba has referred several times to the Devil as "Kanaima" is possible that the authors have decided to give the woman Caribbean origins since "kanaima" is a term in the Carib language used to describe an evil spirit.
- Her Caribbean origins are confirmed in The House of Pain, when Tituba claimed to descend from the Arawak tribe.
- The latest and comprehensive studies on the Salem Witch Trials, like those by Mary Beth Norton, are almost certainly safe to identify Tituba as of Creole descent, likely from Barbados and of mixed heritage.[2] The earliest, uncontaminated examinations refer to her as "Tituba Indian," associating her to a "John Indian" so it's even possible that she was part Native American. Her fairer skin can easily be explained by the fact that in the show, she's explicitly stated as being of the Arawak tribe who have fairer skin when compared to others, similarly to the Lokono tribe. [3]
- Historically Tituba was the first to be accused of witchcraft but was never executed, and it is unknown what had happened to Tituba after the Salem Witch Trials. [4]
- Ironically, in spite of being the Devil's most loyal and pious servant, the Devil blinded Tituba for her treachery against Mary Sibley.
- Tituba claims that she taught Mary Sibley everything she knows about witchcraft, implying that Tituba has all of the powers displayed by her mistress. Tituba also claims that unlike most witches, the Kanaima himself taught her about witchcraft, implying that Tituba is more powerful than she appears.
- The description given on official Instagram to accompany the promotional photos of the third season is as follows: "Tituba: the mysterious handmaiden turned traitor."
- WGN America Salem official website described Tituba as:
"Mysterious and mysteriously ageless, Tituba is the indispensable helper to Mary Sibley, Salem’s most powerful woman. Tituba is ostensibly Mary’s servant in the Sibley household, but in private, behaves as if she’s Mary’s superior. There is a great deal of history between Tituba and Mary – they have experienced unthinkable deeds throughout the years. Although closely tied to Mary, the beautiful and exotic Tituba has powers and secrets all her own."
- The updated summary description of the character for the third season described her as:
"Mary Sibley’s mysterious servant has eaten Petrus’ eyes and now has the abilities of a seer. From the dead, Petrus shares a horrifying vision of hell on earth and she knows Mary Sibley is the only who can stop the Devil boy."
- On Twitter, Ashley Madekwe said that it takes over an hour to do the prosthetic scarring on her face. Additionally, prosthetic flaps cover her own eyes so vision is limited. [5]
- During Ask Salem interview, Ashley Madekwe said that her favorite props are the animals, especially the rabbit with which she had to shoot the Necromancy scene in the first season. She does not like insects, though. Ashley Madekwe respects and acknowledge Wicca as a religion, but does not believe in witchcraft as an evil thing. She does not believe in the supernatural, but she still put a tourmaline bracelet - considered a remedy against negative energy - in her bra during some ritual scenes because it's "better safe than sorry." When asked what other Salem's character she would play if she could, Ashley Madekwe said she'd like to play Petrus. Interesting enough, in the third season, Tituba inherited Petru's burden as a Seer.
References
- ↑ Almost as much as her historical counterpart, Tituba's fate is uncertain since A. Simon and B. Braga have been somewhat vague about the outcome of Tituba's confrontation with Anne Hale. The possibilities are many, including the one according to which Tituba is dead and is trapped in her personal Hell. A second theory is that Anne simply showed a threatening vision to discourage Tituba from hindering her; Or that Anne magically sent Tituba aboard a real slave ship, magically depriving the woman of her mouth. The first two theories are the most popular among Salem Wiki fans.
- ↑ Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Vintage, 2002.
- ↑ Collider Videos, 'Salem' Season 2: Shane West and Ashley Madekwe Talk Favorite Gross-Out Scenes
- ↑ Tituba on Wikipedia.org
- ↑ Ashley Madekwe about her season 3 make-up
See Also