Benjamin Cohen d’Azevedo Character Analysis

Benjamin d’Azevedo is an older, wealthy, Jewish merchant from Portugal. He purchases Tituba after the conclusion of the Salem witch trials, because he distrusts the Puritans and so does not put stock in their accusations of people. As the father of nine children and a widower, Benjamin mostly relies on Tituba to do household chores, though she also uses her powers to connect him to his deceased wife Abigail d’Azevedo. Benjamin and Tituba become romantically involved, and though her new paramour is physically unattractive, Tituba thinks fondly of their sexual life together (which is “like a drunken boat on a choppy sea”). Benjamin reflects that “our God knows neither race nor color,” and his own experiences as a Jew allow him some insight into the persecution Tituba faces as a Black woman; still, he initially refuses to grant Tituba her legal freedom. However, after his children are killed in a fire, Benjamin regrets his role as an enslaver, and he frees Tituba and buys her passage back to Barbados.