Mathias de Sousa

Mathias de Sousa 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.^[1][2]

De Sousa's racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, which were largely reduced to a contemporary understanding of the word "mulatto" in the 20th century,^[1] is still debated among academics, although he is largely believed to have been of mixed Portuguese and African background.^[2]