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.
[2] De Sousa arrived in colonial Maryland, likely sometime between 1633 and 1635, 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.
[2] According to University of Maryland law professor David S. Bogan: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.
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.