In his characteristic fashion, D.W.Griffith attacked modern-day hypocrisy and bigotry by using a historical example in Rose o' Salem Town. The story takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, during the era of the Witch Trials. When his romantic advances are rebuffed by the heroine, a lecherous Puritan elder accuses the girl and her mother of witchcraft and sentences them to be burned at the stake (and never mind that the "witches" of Salem were all hanged, not burned). Though the mother dies in the flames, the girl is rescued by her sweetheart, with the help of a tribe of friendly Indians. This last plot wrinkle would resurface nearly ninety years later in the Demi Moore version of The Scarlet Letter. Rose o' Salem Town was filmed on location at Delaware Water Gap, New Jersey.
