Conventional wisdom holds that Africans are a comparatively recent presence in Europe. But Olivette Otele debunks this, and uncovers a long history of Europeans of African descent. Along the way, Otele introduces such figures as Saint Maurice, a third-century Egyptian who became the leader of a Roman legion; Alessandro de Medici, a Florentine duke who is thought to have been born to a free African woman; and Jeanne Duval, the Creole muse of French poet Charles Baudelaire.