The scandal began when three women, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, the Native American slave of Reverend Samuel Parris, were accused and interrogated as witches . Tituba would be the only one of the three to confess to witchcraft. His confession led to many consequences which will be discussed in more detail later. Tituba, from the archival research of Elaine Breslaw, author of Reluctant Witch of Salem, concluded that Tituba was a Native American slave whose cultural influences could be traced back to the Arawak tribe (xxii). Tituba plays an important role in the history of the Salem witch trials, because without her confessions, the Puritan leaders may not have felt such a strong presence of evil in Salem. But why did these educated Puritans believe in her ?