Black Self-Emancipators of Florida: A History Talk by Neil Vaz

231 West Packwood Avenue,Maitland FL 32751

30 November, 2022

Description

The talk will focus on Florida's maroons known as the Black Seminoles in the nineteenth century. It will highlight the self-emancipation of these African descendants and why these stories have been kept out of the history books. The talk will shed light on the underrepresented maroon history, which is the history of the African/African descended communities found throughout the Americas during the era of the transatlantic slave trade. This narrative does not present these populations as victims without agency, but as heroic fighters who earned their freedom through self-emancipation, rebellion, and warfare, and established independent communities amid the existence of the draconian modern states being established throughout the Americas. Neil Vaz was born on November 3, 1983, in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jamaican father, Albert Vaz, and Grenadian mother, Brenda Clouden. He is the third child of four boys. His family moved to Casselberry, Florida, just shy of his second birthday. Neil and his brothers--Ian, Lance, and Chad, attended Seminole County Public Schools, including Casselberry Elementary, South Seminole Middle, and Lyman High School. For College Neil attended Seminole Community College, between 2002 and 2005, where he met great professors such as Dr. Stephen Caldwell Wright, Trent Tomengo, and Raphael Jackson. All three of these professors in college, who were Neil's first experiences with African American males instructing him in academia, inspired him to take his schooling seriously and pursue a degree in the area of social sciences focusing on the history of his ancestors. After graduating from Seminole in 2005, Neil attended Florida State University in Tallahassee. He majored in political science and minored in history. His passion for history continued to increase, and after graduating with a bachelor's in 2007, and working as a substitute teacher and a JV boys' basketball coach at his former high school between 2008 and 2009, Neil's passion for teaching also developed. In 2009, Neil was accepted to Howard University's Master's program in history, in Washington, D.C., where he majored in African History. After graduating in 2011, he stayed at Howard for the Doctoral program in African diaspora history, focusing on eighteenth century African resistance to enslavement in the Caribbean. In 2016, Neil defended his dissertation entitled Dominica's Neg Mawon: Maroonage, Diaspora, and Transatlantic Networks, 1763-1814. After graduating, Neil moved back to Florida to raise his children and secured a job at his alma mater, Seminole State College. Neil's passion is to continue to uncover and tell the stories of those communities of African descent throughout the diaspora that fought for their freedom from slavery in spite of all the odds stacked against them, many of which are still with us today.