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.

De Sousa's racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, which were largely reduced to a contemporary understanding of the word "mulatto" in the 20th century, 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.

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.