The Deposition Copyist

The Deposition Copyist is a proposed original witness whose job is to turn frightened, coerced, and contradictory speech into records that authorities can use.

At a glance

• Desire: protect a vulnerable household member without becoming the next subject of suspicion.
• Contradiction: the copyist believes exact transcription is a refuge from judgment, yet every choice of wording changes what survives.
• Pressure: a deposition contains a claim the speaker retracts but the record will not release.
• Historical basis: wholly invented; role and access require research.

Agency and interior logic

The copyist can preserve hesitation, normalize it away, disclose coercion, or hide behind procedure. Their agency must never become the power to “solve” the trials with magic. The central need is to recognize that a clean record can participate in violence.

Relationship pressure

• Tituba: the story must respect her status as an enslaved accused woman and the enormous pressure around her confession; the copyist cannot appropriate her experience.
• Bridget Bishop: her documented accusation, trial, and execution establish irreversible human stakes, not a fantasy-villain role.
• Household/court authority: offers protection only while the copyist preserves institutional usefulness.

Record and invention

The copyist and any anomalous record are inventions. Tituba and Bishop were historical people harmed within the 1692 crisis. Exact scenes involving them require primary-source and sensitivity review.

Development gate

Approve whether the lead’s precise role is historically plausible, define identity and household position, and create a knowledge/relationship schedule. Until then this remains a role record, not locked canon.