Tituba

Quiz — Tituba by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1. Recall – Form & Voice: What type of poetic form is Tituba, and who serves as its speaker?

1. Recall – Key Images: What category of natural objects does Tituba catalogue at the opening of the poem, and what does she emphasize about each one?

1. Recall – Symbols: Which specific accusations from the historical Salem witch trials does Tituba turn into personal boasts within the poem?

1. Comprehension – Character & Power: Tituba names a series of figures representing different pillars of Puritan colonial society. Identify the five types of authority figures she references and explain what their combined listing suggests.

1. Comprehension – Knowledge as Power: Why is the declaration "I know their secrets" considered a pivotal moment in the poem, and what makes this kind of knowledge different from material possessions such as land or freedom?

1. Comprehension – Escalating Claims: How does Tituba's assertion of power expand beyond human bodies as the poem progresses, and what does this escalation suggest about her status by the poem's end?

1. Analysis – The Closing Couplet: The word "slave" appears twice in the poem's final two lines, each time carrying a different meaning. Explain how this reversal functions and what argument it makes about who truly holds power.

1. Analysis – Tone: The analysis describes the poem's tone as "incantatory" and "chilling" rather than overtly furious. How does this controlled, precise tone contribute to the sense of danger and dark triumph in the monologue?

1. Analysis – Symbolism: The poisonous plants are described as symbolizing "elusive, uncontainable knowledge." How does this symbolic meaning connect to Tituba's broader situation as an enslaved woman stripped of every outward sign of status?

1. Analysis – Historical & Contextual: Longfellow composed this poem in the aftermath of the American Civil War. In what ways does the poem's portrayal of Tituba — an enslaved woman whose secret knowledge subverts colonial authority — resonate with the social and political concerns of that post-war moment?

Answer Key

1. Tituba is a dramatic monologue; the speaker is Tituba, an enslaved Indigenous woman in colonial Salem.

1. She catalogues poisonous and medicinal plants (such as monk's-hood, nightshade, and henbane), detailing the specific harm each one can inflict.

1. She appropriates the accusations of the "Evil Eye" and the "Evil Hand," reclaiming them as badges of her own power rather than accepting them as marks of guilt.

1. She references the captain (military), merchant (economic), scholar (intellectual), minister (religious), and magistrate (legal) — together representing the entire framework of Puritan colonial authority, which she then systematically dismantles.

1. It is pivotal because secret knowledge cannot be confiscated, sold, or stripped away the way land or physical freedom can; it is the one possession that remains entirely hers.

1. Her claimed power expands from afflicting human bodies with ailments to controlling livestock, crops, weather, and natural disasters such as shipwrecks, tornadoes, and fires — elevating her from herbalist to a near-mythic, unstoppable force.

1. The first use of "slave" refers to the label imposed on Tituba by her oppressors; the second reveals that those same oppressors are actually enslaved — by fear of her power. The reversal argues that real control belongs to Tituba, not to those who legally own her.

1. The chilling precision of her tone makes the monologue feel like a spell rather than an outburst, suggesting that her power is calculated and deliberate; restrained fury is more threatening than open rage, heightening the poem's sense of dark triumph.

1. Because Tituba has been dispossessed of everything external, her botanical knowledge becomes her sole, indestructible form of agency — just as the plants themselves thrive beyond the reach of human ownership, so does the knowledge of them.

1. Written after the Civil War, the poem invites a nation newly confronting its history of slavery to reconsider Tituba's story: her enslavement and the hysteria it was entangled with reflect broader questions of racial oppression, and her defiant reclaiming of power speaks to themes of resistance and dignity that were urgently alive in Longfellow's era.