Final answer:
Cotton Mather's 'Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions' revolves around the subject of witchcraft, contributing to the hysteria that led to the Salem witch trials. The text describes Puritan beliefs and the societal conviction in the existence of witches and the devil, which played a significant role during that time. Tituba is the West Indian servant related to the onset of these events.
Step-by-step explanation:
The subject of Cotton Mather's Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions is witchcraft, more specifically the events surrounding the Salem witch trials of 1692. In the document, Mather examines the cases of supposed witchcraft and demonic possession, such as the one involving the children of a Boston mason who were said to be possessed by the devil, leading to the execution of a woman accused of being a witch. The accounts in Mather's book depicted a societal conviction in the existence of the devil and witchcraft, pivotal to the Puritan belief system and contributed to the witchcraft scare and subsequent trials in Salem Village.
The West Indian servant mentioned in reference to the initiation of the Salem witchcraft scare is Tituba. She was the servant and possibly a slave in the household of Samuel Parris, whose daughter and niece were among the first to show signs of affliction attributed to witchcraft. Under intense questioning, Tituba's stories of the occult and her teachings to the girls were believed to spark the hysteria that led to widespread witchcraft accusations and trials.