In the inaugural episode of The Thing About Salem, hosts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack take you inside the Salem Witch Trials, focusing on the early events that triggered the infamous witch-hunt. Discover how Tituba became the unwitting catalyst for America's most infamous witch hunt. This isn't the sanitized version you learned in school or saw in The Crucible—this is the raw, documented truth about three pivotal days that changed history forever.When 9-year-old Betty Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams began barking like dogs and trying to walk into fireplaces in January 1692, their desperate community turned to folk magic—baking a grotesque "witch cake" made with the girls' urine and feeding it to a dog. This bizarre ritual, unique in all of New England's witch trial records, appeared to succeed when the girls began naming witches the very next day. Their first target was Tituba, the enslaved indigenous woman in their own household—the most vulnerable person in Salem Village and the unwitting catalyst who would spend 15 months in jail as the witch trials exploded across Massachusetts.Listeners are provided with a detailed account of the strange behaviors exhibited by Parris's daughter Betty and niece Abigail, the mysterious witch cake baked by Mary Sibley, and the subsequent accusations against Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. The podcast also highlights Tituba's lasting impact and a commemorative brick in her honor at the House of the Seven Gables. The episode is the first in a weekly series exploring different facets of the Salem Witch Trials.00:00 Introduction to The Salem Witch Trials00:13 Meet Your Hosts: Josh and Sarah00:35 Podcast Overview and Schedule01:07 Focus on Salem Witch Trials01:25 Tituba: The Enslaved Woman at the Center02:02 The Mysterious Illness of Betty and Abigail05:55 The Witch Cake Experiment09:58 Accusations Begin: Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne12:10 Tituba's Fate and Memorial13:31 Closing Remarks and Patreon InvitationKey Topics CoveredThe Parris Household Crisis (January 1692)The Afflicted GirlsMysterious SymptomsDr. William GriggsMary Sibley's Folk MagicSamuel Parris's ResponseTituba's VulnerabilityLife-Changing MomentThe Thing About Salem WebsiteThe Thing About Salem YouTubeThe Thing About Salem PatreonMary Bingham’s YouTube Channel: Sarah Wildes 1692The Thing About Witch Hunts YouTubeThe Thing About Witch Hunts WebsiteTituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem by Elaine G. BreslawSix Women of Salem by Marilynne K. RoachThe Salem Witch Trials: A Day-By-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege by Marilynne K. Roach

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