sentences:  In 1641, Dorcas Ye Blackmore, a servant to Israel Stoughton, was the first recorded African American to join a church in New England, and she taught Stoughton's Native American servants about the gospel message, and the church attempted to help Dorcas gain her freedom.The first four meetinghouses acted as Dorchester’s town hall.The fifth building, built in 1816, was the host to many social justice leaders, such as William Lloyd Garrison and Theodore Parker, because of First Parish's long-standing pastor, the Reverend Nathaniel Hall, who was dedicated to the abolitionist cause.