Part 1, Chapters 1 and 2 Summary

Chapter 1 - Writing in first person, Tituba describes the circumstances of her birth and early life. She writes of how her mother Abena was raped on the slave ship carrying her from Africa to Barbados, how Abena's owner found out she was pregnant and gave her to a fellow slave (Yao) who treated her lovingly, and how Abena was distant towards her as she was growing because of how she had been conceived. She describes how Abena and Yao came to love each other, how that love made Abena beautiful, how that beauty moved Abena's owner to attempt to rape her, and how Abena defended herself with a cutlass. This, Tituba writes, led to Abena's execution (slaves did not strike their masters), to Yao's suicide (as he was being transferred to another plantation) and to Tituba's being cast out...