From the early seventeenth century, North America and Africa have maintained many contacts. This volume traces these reciprocal relationships over four centuries. The authors show how American pioneers - missionaries, traders, prospectors, miners, educators, soldiers of fortune, manufacturers, financiers, engineers, scientists, and others - have helped shape modern Africa. They provide a valuable corrective to traditional colonial historiography that has tended to emphasize only the role of the colonial centers in developing Africa. In addition, the writers point to the equally important impact made by Africa on the United States through trade and immigration, enforced and voluntary, and thtough the influence of Africans on the arts, agriculture, and many other facets of American life.