Three Lost Voices From Early Maryland

The History of the Americans

This episode tells the story of three “lost voices” from early Maryland, surprising people who remind us of the complexity of the 17th century Atlantic world. Mathias de Sousa was of African descent, and is called “the first Black colonist” of Maryland. He would skipper a pinnace in the Chesapeake, trade with the local tribes, and sit in the Maryland Assembly. Margaret Brent was a stone-cold businesswoman, executor for the estate of Leonard Calvert, and would become famous for demanding not just one vote, but two, in the Maryland Assembly. Trust me when I say she had her reasons. Finally, there is Mary Kittamaquund Kent, “the Pocahontas of Maryland.” Her similarities to the actual Pocahontas were, it must be said, something of a stretch.

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Selected references for this episode

David S. Bogen, “Mathias de Sousa: Maryland’s First Colonist of African Descent,” Maryland Historical Magazine Spring 2001.

Lois Green Carr, “Margaret Brent – A Brief History”, Maryland State Archives.

Kelly L. Watson, “‘The Pocahontas of Maryland’: Sex, Marriage, and Diplomacy in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake,” Early American Studies, Winter 2021.