Mathias de Sousa

First man of African descent to participate in the Maryland Assembly.

Mathias de Sousa was the first Marylander of African and Portuguese descent. He was one of the nine indentured servants brought to Maryland by Jesuit missionaries. He was on the Ark when Lord Baltimore’s expedition arrived in the St. Mary’s River in 1634. When his indenture was finished by 1638, he became a mariner and fur trader. In 1641, he commanded a trading voyage north to the Susquehannock Indians and, in 1642, sailed as master of a ketch belonging to the Provisional Secretary John Lewger.

De Sousa departed and returned to the St. Mary’s River many times He anchored and walked to Lewger’s Manor House at St. John’s. While living there, he served in the 1642 Maryland Legislative Assembly of Freeman at St. Mary’s City. No record remains of de Sousa’s activities after 1642, but his legacy of courage and success is regarded with great pride by all the citizens of St. Mary’s County and Maryland.

Additional Resources:

Bogen, David S. “Mathias de Sousa: Maryland’s First Colonist of African Descent.” Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. 96, no. 1 (Spring 2001)

King, Julia & Chaney, Edward. (2011). Passing for Black in Seventeenth-Century Maryland 10.1007/978-0-387-70759-4_5.