Before the church was built, around 1635, its members had to gather in houses or a building near the Town House Square.[2] The congregation claims to be "one of the oldest continuing Protestant churches in North America and the first to be governed by congregational polity, a central feature of Unitarian Universalism".[3]
The values of the Puritans who founded the First Church in Salem stated that they were on a pilgrimage to the city of God. This made them want to perfect their world and community. It also made some of their members such as third minister Roger Williams, activists in the community. He specifically argued that Native Americans should be compensated for their land and that the colonial government should not have power over the church.[3]
^William Lloyd Garrison (1973). The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: No Union with the Slaveholders, 1841-1849. Harvard University Press. p. 343. ISBN0674526627.
^Laura L. Mitchell (1998). John R. McKivigan; Mitchell Snay (eds.). "Matters of Justice Between Man and Man". Religion and the Antebellum Debate over Slavery. University of Georgia Press: 154. ISBN0820319724.