After reading the first few chapters of I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, it is quite apparent that this fictionalized portrayal, descriptively polarizes itself from that of Mary Prince’s narrative.  I mention this not to draw some sort of competition between the two, but to point out my pique in interest of how each author makes similar events, also distinct.   Just from reading the first few pages of this novel, it is clear that Conde’s use of historical records is much more indulged and explicit in that of racism and sexism.  The more unequivocal and blatant denotations of rape, definitely augmented this view of violence and oppression of women by men.  When she simply states “Abena, my mother was raped by an English sailor on the deck of Christ the King..” it is like Conde is setting us up for much more malicious events to soon transpire.  Focusing the beginning of the novel on Tituba’s mother enslavement grabbed my attention a lot more than I presumed it would.  When Conde begins to describe Abena and Yao’s (who is also a fellow slave) relationship, after Abena’s owner gives her away, it is actually very assuring.  This love and bond that they feel at the moment seems to put the harrowing events that are transpiring in the background, if even just for a split moment.  And this is quickly made apparent, when Abena’s owner attempts to rape her afterwards, and her execution because of her defense.

I also found the introduction of John Indian and his ideologies towards slaves to be very vital in this novel’s overall theme.  When he repetitively mentions to Tituba, that a slave’s first duty is to survive, I began to sense a form of paradoxical complex.  This complex is perhaps what led to Tituba’s and his sexual relationship, and her lust for it thereafter.

It appears that Tituba’s love for John Indian dwindles into nothing more than sex. This is portrayed in the text when she loses respect for John especially when he is so willing and subservient to Susanna Endicott. Tituba is repeatedly humiliated just to stay with him. Further in the text, Tituba displays power over Susanna by using her witchcraft to make her sick. Unfortunately, her attempts to claim power over Susanna is diminished when Susanna catches wind of this and banishes John and Tituba. Tituba was also warned by her mentor Mama Yaya not to get into a relationship with John but did it anyway. I believe this may be a reoccurring theme in the text and may foreshadow Tituba’s sorcery and sexual desires only ending in her demise.

The significant moment that I found in these chapters was when Tituba, Betsey and Abigail were coming from the Wharf and saw a gathering of people surrounding someone that was about to be hanged. It caused Tituba to remember her mother that she had lost at a tender age by the same manner of execution. The same way how the people had gathered around and watched as Goody Glover died was the same memory in which she remembers her mother Abena’s death so many years ago. The fact that she cried so much at the sight I believe wasn’t so much that she felt sorry for her, I believe she cried bitterly because she remembered the pain that she went through and the horror that she had to witness at such a young age. I believe that this moment was significant because when Abigail told Tituba about the act that Goody Glover had done and that her punishment was befitting because she was a witch, it was the fist time that Tituba got to see the reality and the serious punishment that would be imposed on witches when they were exposed. She did not think that she was a witch though she had to keep most of what she did a secret because she would have fallen to the same fate, because her master and everyone in that community seem like overly religious saints that would not approve of her practices.

while reading I, Tituba black witch of salem i found myself comparing it to The History of Mary Prince and how in the history of mary prince they masked any thing that dealt with  the sexual part of her life, like you had to read and dissect the reading to figure out the sexual aspect of her life. But in I tituba it starts out very open by showing the hardship of a female slave, with her mother being raped at 16 then being sold because her owner found that she was pregnant, then to her mom cutting the owner and being hanged because she wanted to protect Tituba from the slave owner. Also the way she described the master as this sex crazed person, in that scene, as he stripped and walked over to her. This stood out a lot to me because as a child that can be so traumatizing and as shes describing i can only imagine how shes feeling, like shes scared of what might happen to her, how will this moment affect and change her life. Then after this scene she kept repeating “they hanged my mother” to show that this was not only gonna show a turning point in her life but how cruel slavery was. All because her mother wanted to protect her from the master’s immoral behavior.

So far I am enjoying the text. There are many areas that I find interesting, however, the significant moment that I will bring up is when Abena defended herself against Darnell Davis when he wanted to have sex with her. I believe she defended herself against him for many different reasons such as; not wanting to  subject her body to be abused by the hands of another cruel white man, not wanting her daughter to have to witness an obscene act like like that especially at such a young age, having to bear another humiliation, and for her, the awful possibility of being pregnant by another white man. I found this moment significant because again it was another slave woman defending herself and not showing fear for the consequences of her actions. In doing this that was probably her way of showing her daughter Tituba that she should never allow a man or anyone to take advantage of her or force her to do anything that she didn’t wanted to do. Her actions though had very serious repercussions as she lost her life, she only gave him a gash on his shoulder, while reading I thought to myself that she should have gone “all the way with the cutlass” at least then it would’ve seemed that the crime  fitted the punishment.

from pages 41 to the end of the narrative what really interest me was how dramatic everything was from the brutal beating Mary received and the unsafe work condition that all the slaves went through, but in my opinion i find that being dramatic throughout the novel was a necessity to show the reader how important slavery was, because many people throw the word slavery around as if it means nothing or its just something they brush off they shoulder and in reality it is a horrible history that we all share, i find that the novel give very good details that paints a very important image in our head because when people hear the word slavery they think of beating and attending to someone needs but the book being so dramatic it give us a clear insight that slavery was so much more than that from the slaves being dehumanize, treating like animals and all the pain and suffering they went through, so slavery should not be taken lightly because its a time in history that will never be forgotten.

Reading page 20 to 40 was a real eye opener to me of the type of person Mary really was, in some cases she remind me of a early rosa parks, she stands up for what she believes in. As Mary strive to find her to way to freedom. It is clear that she is not just fighting for herself but she is also fighting for race. Mary has genuine love for people. And she just don’t fight for freedom, but she is fighting for freedom for all. Not to just abolish slavery, but freedom for the whites to see there worth, freedom for equality. Freedom for a better life, And she believe it start with her race coming together. Coming together to make a difference and off the record what really open my eye is the fact that as the black culture came together for freedom through the love of each other, but somewhere along the way to modern time we kinda lost where we came from and instead of keep fighting for the better. together, we continue to fight each other, kill each other, and forget how we made it in the first place was through the love of one another that I see in Mary as a person, Mary character as a person really influence me because it shows me that u might be going through rough times, but your not the only one, there are many people around that can be going through the same thing so why talk only for yourself and not of all. Mary prince

Reading the first 20 pages of Mary prince and listening to her story of hard labor, the physical and mental punishment she went through as a slave really touched me, and brought back flashbacks of my past. Mary prince in some cases has lived the saying we have heard over the years. That “the grass is not always so greener on the other side”. In the book Mary explains how she was with a wonderful family that took her in to be the companion for they daughter Betsy until Mrs. Williams had pass away and the former husband of Williams had found a new wife, but needed money for the wedding so he decided to sell Mary, her mother, and sisters, Mary was then bought by captain I where she was treated very cruel where as when she was living with her former master and mistress she was treated with love well at less that’s what it sounded like cause we can also make the prediction as the reader that maybe marry was just too young to start getting treated cruel like she was treated further into her story, but moving on, Mary was treated so bad by captain I the pain was unbearable. She was wiped many times and punished until she felt like giving up on everything, unable to bare the pain Mary had ran away from her master and eager to find a new one where she realized that the grass is not always greener on the other side, thereafter Mary was then bought by captain D captain D was a very cold hearted guy and he made marry worked for hours in the salt water pond where she eventually got sick where it affected her joints, but captain D wanted his slaves to do nothing but work and when they failed to do so he would whoop them, hereafter Mary might have realized that the grass is not greener on the other side. This part of Mary life really touched/ influenced me because for almost my entire life I lived with my father back in Jamaica while my mother was living in the U.S. Trying to build a better life for me, but life with my farther did not seem like life at all. My farther would come home drunk on many nights and he would beat on me, punch me. I was fat as a child and he would tease me I was so abuse as a child that I start to forget who “I Am”. I can remember the moment like it was yesterday. I would hear him coming up the steps and I would run into the closet and hide cause of the fear he will beat on me. Unable to take the pain. I reached out to my mother and told her of the situation. But she seem to b in disbelief and told me I’m crazy, so I decided to reach out to other family member. Determined to move away from my farther and came to find out that the grass is truly not greener on the other side when my uncle decided to take me in. I thought it would be a great idea seeing that that we had a nice relationship as a child but surprisingly my uncle was a drunk as well and he would beat on me worst than my farther did

Mary talks about a fellow slave name Louis. She states how he is very samrt and can read and write very well. Two things had caught my eye when i was reading the towards the end of this novel.

Page 263 , line 4-6  (in the eBook version) Mary says “poor Luis, when he offered the choice of going back to Africa, replied, “Me no father, no mother now; me stay with you.” The stood out to me because why would  want to go back to where he been most of his life. He just really happy about staying out there. ” Me think what a good thing I came England! Here, I know what God is, and read my Bible; in my country they have no God, no bible” he says. This also stood out to me because probably back in Africa he was not aloud to thing or read about God. I think when he was in Africa, they masters must of took them believing in God.

As I Continued to read “The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave” from pages 41 to the end I began to get eager that perhaps Mary would make her way to finally becoming a free women. I though this because I didn’t want to believe that every single part of Mary life has had to been this depressingly tragic. However, my feelings easily began to change after I continued to read how possessive Mr. Woods was over Mary Prince. Yes, I understand that slavery did in fact give the slave owners a sense of power, and ownership because the ‘blacks’ were seem as property, rather than anything else. However, throughout reading the text all of the other slaves Mary has mentioned were easily tossed from slave owner, to slave owner. However for Mr. Woods he just wouldn’t let Mary go. This obsession over Mary that Mr. Woods felt truly angered me, as did much of the text of course. It seemed as if he liked Mary to keep her around, but at the end of the day she would get mistreated, mentally and physically abused? The way I felt Mr. Woods suppressed Mary was just astonishing and tragic to read about.