{{Short description|17th-century Maryland colonist of African descent}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = Mathias de Sousa sculpture Maryland via Allen Browne 2016 P2050326-1.jpg | caption = Bronze relief within a 1987 monument | alt = Sculpture of a 17th century colonist | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | occupation = Fur trader, mariner, indentured servant | other_names = {{sic|Matthias Sousa}} | module = {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes | office = Member of Province of Maryland General Assembly | term_start = 1641 | term_end = }} }} '''Mathias de Sousa''' ({{fl.|1633}}) was an early settler of the Province of Maryland and is often cited as the first person of African descent to vote in an American legislature, owing to his presence at a 1641 Maryland Assembly meeting. De Sousa came to Maryland as an indentured servant of Jesuit priests, who identified him as being a "molato" in a pair of land claim documents.<ref name="king">King, Julia & Chaney, Edward. (2011). [https://www.researchgate.net/figure/An-imagined-Mathias-de-Sousa-as-depicted-on-a-monument-to-his-memory-at-Historic-St_fig1_226842353 Passing for Black in Seventeenth-Century Maryland]. 10.1007/978-0-387-70759-4_5.</ref><ref name="bogen">{{Cite journal |last=Bogen |first=David |date=2001-01-01 |title=Mathias de Sousa: Maryland's First Colonist of African Descent |url=https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs/713 |volume=96 |journal=Maryland Historical Magazine |page=68}}</ref>
De Sousa's racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, which were largely reduced to a contemporary understanding of the word "mulatto" in the 20th century,<ref name="king" /> is still debated among academics, although he is largely believed to have been of mixed Portuguese and African background.<ref name="bogen" />
==Life== De Sousa arrived in colonial Maryland, likely in 1633<ref name="bogen" /> as an indentured servant of Father Andrew White, a Jesuit priest. De Sousa was referred to as a "molato" in a 1639 document written by Father Ferdinand Poulton, who was requesting land be allocated to his Jesuit order. A second document repeating this request once again listed de Sousa as a "molato". The six other documented mentions of de Sousa in the historical record, five of which were made by an English court recorder, do not make any mention of his race or ethnic background.<ref name="king" />
On March 23, 1641, de Sousa was recorded as having been present at a Maryland Assembly meeting.<ref name="bogen" /> According to University of Maryland law professor David S. Bogan: <blockquote>De Sousa's absence from the earlier meetings raises the possibility that he was merely a spectator or a witness in one of the cases decided by the provincial court, but the records contain no reference that might suggest persons listed as assembled were not freemen. Laws passed in the afternoon session were stated to be "passed by all." Consequently, de Sousa's recorded presence in the list of persons assembled on the afternoon of March 23 indicates his status as a free man voting on the laws passed at that time.<ref name="bogen" /></blockquote>That same year, de Sousa was recorded as being responsible for the hiring of men for an expedition to trade fur with the Susquehanna. He also served as the skipper of the expedition's pinnace.<ref name="bogen" /><ref name="Mathias de Sousa">{{cite web |title=Mathias de Sousa |url=https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/002800/002810/html/2810bio.html |accessdate=2022-09-29 |publisher=Maryland State Archives}}</ref> In 1642, de Sousa and his employee John Prettiman were indentured to the Provincial Secretary, John Lewger, for debts likely incurred from the fur trading expeditions. There is no historical mention of de Sousa following 1643.<ref name="Mathias de Sousa" />
De Sousa has often been assumed to have been Catholic, although some sources have speculated him to be a Sephardic Jew.<ref name="bogen" />
==Legacy== A historical marker has been erected in St. Mary's City in St. Mary's County, Maryland.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=5626 |title=Mathias de Sousa |publisher=Historical Marker Database |accessdate=2022-09-29}}</ref>
The actor Denzel Washington spent the summer of 1976 in the city of St. Mary's in summer stock theater performing ''Wings of the Morning'', the Maryland State play, which was written for him by incorporating an African-American character/narrator based loosely on de Sousa.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smcm.edu/archives/documents/StMarysWhenDidTimeline.pdf|title=St. Mary's: A When-Did Timeline|website=St. Mary's Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221145632/http://www.smcm.edu/archives/documents/StMarysWhenDidTimeline.pdf |archive-date=February 21, 2014 |page=30|first1=Janet Butler|last1=Haugaard|first2=Susan G.|last2=Wilkinson|first3=Julia A.|last3=King}}</ref><ref name="msa.maryland.gov">{{cite magazine |last=Falb |first=Susan Rosenfeld |date=December 1978 |title=Matthias da Sousa: Colonial Maryland's Black, Jewish Assemblyman |url=http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5800/sc5881/000001/000000/000293/pdf/msa_sc_5881_1_293.pdf |magazine=Maryland Historical Magazine |volume=73 |issue=4}}</ref>
==See also== *African Americans in Maryland *History of the Jews in Maryland
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:17th-century African-American people Category:17th-century American people Category:African-American history of Maryland Category:African-American state legislators in Maryland Category:Fur traders from the Thirteen Colonies Category:Indentured servants from the Thirteen Colonies Category:American people of Portuguese-Jewish descent Category:People from colonial Maryland Category:St. Mary's City, Maryland Category:African-American Catholics Category:American people of Portuguese descent