It’s been said that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. No truer words have been spoken when referring to some of the inventions created by African-Americans. It wasn’t only necessity that played an important role in African-American inventions, often it was the ability to see a problem and find a solution. Other times, it was the ability to see an existing process and make it better. African-American inventors are one of the most underrated groups in American History. So many products, designs, equipment, machinery and devices we use today can be directly attributed to African-American inventors from the 1700’s and 1800’s.