based on the first few pages of this book that i read, I sensed a high level of strength and determination coming from the main character, tibuta; from losing her mother at such a young age in such a gruesome manner, which she witnessed the whole thing to learning the “secret healings and magic” from mama Yaya. these were the two most significant things i took away from the reading as i feel that they had a lot to do with the way she turned out. This book is very similiar to the previous book we read ,by how vivid the pictures ,of how brutal the slaves were treated, are painted. and it differs in that unlike the first book “the history of mary prince” this books talk about sex in a more explicit manner.

Throughout the reading there were many diverse significant moments that really stood up to me. Some significant moments were to graphic and gruesome. The significant moment that stoop up to me  was located in chapter 1. It demonstrated how slave owners would brutally kill there slaves and torment them. Also the slave owners tend to get very sexual. Darnell who was a slave owner was groping for his penis. Abena eventually got hanged because she retaliated by wounding his shoulder with the cutlass. This goes to show that slave owners and to power to do anything with female slaves. Including having sexual intercourse with them by force if they refuse they get killed. This chapter had many similar details to a previous book. The book commonly related to Tituba was called The History of Mary Prince. It was told by a slave owner who went by the name of Mary. Mary would describe in great detail of how the slave owners would have more dominance over the slaves. Also they had the power to have sexual intercourse with the slaves wether the slaves liked it or not. Nothing good came towards the slaves if they refused just severe punishments and death.

While reading I, Tituba Black Witch of Salem, I discover something very significant during the reading. Before Tituba was born, her mother Abena was sexually assaulted by an English sailor. Afterwards, Tituba was born from hatred and abhorrence. I found this scene very significant because Abena had been experiencing a lot of trauma and pain throughout her life before the birth of her daughter. For example, Darnell Davis, a wealthy planter, bought her because he assumed that Abena was a skillful slave. Unfortunately, this barbarian discovered that she was pregnant. On the other hand, Jennifer, Darnell’s wife had been resentful to him because she was forced to marry him. She had a good solid relationship with Abena. Also, he had several of illegitimate children. Another scene I found which is significant as well as disturbing in the novel is Darnell showing his private part to Abena. This act would cause Abena to retaliate on him before he had her executed. I feel greatly sad because Abena was trying to defend herself on Darnell which led to her execution. Furthermore, I believe Darnell should be punished than Abena for sexually harshment because he was very vile and harsh to her after founding out that she was pregnant.

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.

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.