Over 200 people were accused of witchcraft, and 20 were executed in New England during the 17th-century Salem Witch Trials. The one Black woman accused of witchcraft, Tituba, did not lose her life, although she was at the epicenter of the ‘witch craze.’
Although they took place 330 years ago at a time the US was not yet an independent country and lasted only about a year, the complex web of superstition, religion, spirituality, and witchcraft featured in the Salem Witch Trials continues to fascinate scholars and common readers alike. One might argue that it was the specific economic, cultural, social, and political factors characterizing life in New England at the time which influenced the goings on decisively.
However, maybe the contexts of the period were not as unique at all. What if there is a lesson to be learned here? One that is pertinent for us to understand in these trying times of misrepresentation, misinformation, fake news, and cancel culture we live in? It seems more important than ever to explore structures of representation in historical storytelling and the discourses they have influenced. One way of doing this is by diving deeper into the stories of and about the ‘witches’ to uncover systems of dominance and marginalization in an effort to create awareness of similar structures that continue to exist today.
In this class, we will therefore center Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” with a view to civil disobedience and “I, Tituba, the Black Witch of Salem” by Maryse Condé with the aim of underlining the importance of representation. We will explore these texts and historical primary sources, the representation of the trials in other cultural scripts in fiction, drama, and film, and of course uncover the individual stories of the ‘witches,’ aiming to better understand the importance of narrative in storytelling.