The only records of Tituba pertain to her central position in the Salem witch trials, where she appears as the Indian slave of a local minister named Samuel Parris.

Breslaw proposed that the name Tituba was derived from the Tetebetana clan of Arawak language speakers, and that she was born near Venezuela and captured as a child.

While there is no direct evidence to prove this theory, Breslaw presumes that she was Samuel Thompson's family cook, as most enslaved Native Americans were.

When she was questioned later, she added that she learned about occult techniques from her mistress in "her own Country" (presumably Barbados), who taught her how to ward herself from evil powers and reveal the cause of witchcraft.

Tituba not only used these outlandish accusations to stir confusion among Massachusetts residents, but she also used them to displace the punishment and death sentence that could have been imposed upon her.

She claimed not to be a witch and denied that accusation against her despite her use of occult practices, admitting that the devil visited her and Parris' determination to find her guilty.

Since it mixed various perspectives on witchcraft, Tituba's confession confused listeners, and its similarities to certain stock tropes of demonology caused some Salem Village residents to believe that Satan was among them.

[13] After the trials, Tituba remained in Boston Gaol, which had deplorable living conditions, for thirteen months because Samuel Parris refused to pay her jail fees.

The image of Tituba as the instigator of witchcraft at Salem was reinforced by the opening scene of The Crucible, which owes much to Marion L. Starkey's historical work The Devil in Massachusetts (1949).

[28] In Miller's play, Tituba is said to have come from Barbados, where she was taught how to conjure up spirits and had allegedly dabbled in sorcery, witchcraft, and Satanism.

The play suggests that Abigail Williams and the other girls tried to use Tituba's knowledge when dancing in the woods before the trials began; it was their being caught that led to those events.

The charge, which is seen by some as having barely disguised racist undertones, is based on the imagination of authors like Starkey, who mirrors Salem's accusers when she asserts that "I have invented the scenes with Tituba .... but they are what I really believe happened.

"[28] Tituba appears in the novel Calligraphy of the Witch (2007) by Alicia Gaspar de Alba as an Arawak Native American Indigenous from Guyana fluent in several languages and the only person in the Boston area who understands Spanish.

She is a friend and English tutor to the indentured servant Concepción Benavidez, who is accused of witchcraft in the Boston area because of her Mexican and Catholic culture.

[30] Later in the series, Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau and Supreme witch Fiona Goode have an in-depth discussion of Tituba's history and legacy.

[31] In Salem (2014–2017), Tituba (Ashley Madekwe) is portrayed as an enslaved biracial woman of Arawak descent who made a deal with the Devil and taught witchcraft to leading character Mary Sibley, née Walcott (Janet Montgomery), plotting against Puritan settlers.