I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem

While Condé attests that Tituba is not a historical novel but instead a mock-epic tale and parody, the declaration of its artificiality is what affirms its authenticity. As a narrative reconstruction of the Salem witch trials giving voice to the black, female slave who was denied her existence, it brings attention to how historical records are a verification of the power structure of white, patriarchal society. It also underscores the biases of colonial historians, revealing the untruths of their non-fiction.

The very impetus behind the rewriting of Tituba to reinsert her presence in history raises the question of the blurry line between what we call history and what we call literature. The structure of the novel itself attests to such a blurring, with insertions not only of historical records, but of pages and sections in which the author speaks of the story of the creation of Tituba as part of the tale itself. 

The novel places the reader in the midst of the African Diaspora. It is impossible to read a story about 17th-century America in which slavery and racism do not take place. However, the contrast between male and female experiences of slavery and racism reveal as much difference as do comparisons between white female and black female experiences of the time.