This book pulls together three dominant themes in the history of Africa and the African diaspora since the fifteenth century—slavery, migrations, and contact with the West—to reflect on their cumulative impact over the years. The consequences of the interactions of Africa and the West transcend the boundaries of Africa itself and extend to locations where black people have been scattered over time and are now labeled as the “African diaspora.” Some other labels have emerged, such as the “black Atlantic” and the “Atlantic World,” incorporating the four continents of Europe, the Americas, and Africa: all localities united by contacts, interactions, migrations of peoples, and exchanges of commodities, and all made possible by the use of the Atlantic Ocean to move goods, peoples, and ideas. The diaspora addressed in this book is in the Americas, and most examples are drawn from the interactions between Africa and the United States. The chapters focus on the relationships between and among people; the postscript points to the relations between states, which shape the future of migrations and transnationalist projects.

To be sure, the African diaspora extends far beyond the United States; there are also communities of African origin in the Caribbean, the continental South and North America, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. While there are commonalities in the experiences of these various diasporic communities, there are also important differences set in the context of regional histories, economics, and politics.