Samuel Parris was originally from Barbados where his father was a wealthy plantation owner. Samuel Parris was attending Harvard College when his father died. He returned to Barbados and was a fairly successful businessman before moving to Boston with two South American slaves: Tituba and John. In Boston, Parris married and had three children. He continued life as a businessman for a while but gradually began preaching and eventually negotiated a post as minister in Salem Village 1689. He was the fourth minister to hold this position since the parish was formed only eighteen years before in 1672. In the winter of 1962, his daughter, Betty (9), and niece, Abigail Williams(11), became afflicted with symptoms the local doctor could not explain.
Showing posts with label Tituba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tituba. Show all posts
Friday, February 4, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Questions from the Cast
Last week I got a few questions from cast members. Here are those questions and their answers so you can return to them and in case anyone else would like the same information. I'm really happy with how involved the cast has been with researching their roles and how responsive you've been to my help and suggestions. Please keep the questions coming, I'm happy to help!
Resources in general: The library at IUP has a great collection to help with researching your character. A lot of these books get pretty specific but you can find broad topics too. In the section on witchcraft you can narrow down to New England witchcraft, Salem Witch trials, and specifics within that. Our actress playing Tituba was able to find a book on the real Tituba which she says has been a great help. Since we're all poor college students in this project, I recommend checking out the library before going out and buying anything. Also, some of the sources in the links on the side are in public domain which means you can find many of them online for free. I've been using Amazon.com which has a great selection of these books in their Kindle store to find free ebooks but there are other sites with similar collections. Try Project Gutenberg and Sacred-Texts.
What Bible did Puritans use at this time? Although the King James Bible had been published by this time my research shows that the Geneva Bible was still being used my Puritan ministers in New England. The Biblical quotes found in John Hale's book match best with this earlier translation. Although this question was brought up by the actor playing Samuel Parris, Puritans highly emphasized that every good Christian should be able to read the Bible so much so that all towns were required to have a school and teach their children (including girls) to read.
Where did ______ live? The University of Virginia has a nice collection of maps of Salem and surrounding areas dating from the trials. Some are originals from the period though a bit easier to read are the interactive maps they've made which highlight accusers and the accused over time and point out the homes of those involved.
Resources in general: The library at IUP has a great collection to help with researching your character. A lot of these books get pretty specific but you can find broad topics too. In the section on witchcraft you can narrow down to New England witchcraft, Salem Witch trials, and specifics within that. Our actress playing Tituba was able to find a book on the real Tituba which she says has been a great help. Since we're all poor college students in this project, I recommend checking out the library before going out and buying anything. Also, some of the sources in the links on the side are in public domain which means you can find many of them online for free. I've been using Amazon.com which has a great selection of these books in their Kindle store to find free ebooks but there are other sites with similar collections. Try Project Gutenberg and Sacred-Texts.
What Bible did Puritans use at this time? Although the King James Bible had been published by this time my research shows that the Geneva Bible was still being used my Puritan ministers in New England. The Biblical quotes found in John Hale's book match best with this earlier translation. Although this question was brought up by the actor playing Samuel Parris, Puritans highly emphasized that every good Christian should be able to read the Bible so much so that all towns were required to have a school and teach their children (including girls) to read.
Where did ______ live? The University of Virginia has a nice collection of maps of Salem and surrounding areas dating from the trials. Some are originals from the period though a bit easier to read are the interactive maps they've made which highlight accusers and the accused over time and point out the homes of those involved.
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