“Salem, WGN’s creative reimagining of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, returns for its second season on April 5.”
The main character, Mary Sibley, is vaguely mentioned in history as being a helpmate of Tituba in instruction for witchcraft, –of course, in the show, it’s the other way around. There is also no small amount of irony in that Sibley is blamed for a good portion of the events during the Salem Witch Trials, though she married, moved, and lived a long life in another town.
Other characters, like Tituba, are pretty silly in the show; Tituba in history would likely have had a much darker skin tone, as she was from Barbados, and the accent is demented. She’s also a lot more well-dressed, as well as most of the other characters are, –than anyone would be in any colonial setting, let alone a Puritan settlement. The other “real” characters are Mercy Lewis, Cotton Mather, and John Alden. The show is imaginative, if completely unrealistic and impractical… as well as downright historically inaccurate, but! I strongly encourage you (and me), to disregard history, and try to think of the show as pure fiction. Try not to compare it to the actual events, because it will definitely taint the experience.
source: www.popsugar.com