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HISTORICAL ANNOTATION 1025

matic assignment. In Paris he was admitted to the Anthropological Society, where he
became perhaps the first black scholar to write a systematic work of anthropology.
His research led to the publishing of The Equality of the Human Races in 1885, a
direct response to racist anthropological works of the nineteenth century such as
Count Arthur de Gobineau's four-volume Inequality of Human Races. Firmin
rejected de Gobineau's racial classifications as nonscientific and absurd; he also
questioned the biological premise of race. Firmin's work denied the notion of "pure
races" and celebrated the inherent values of race mixtures. He returned to Haiti in
the midst of the civil war of 1888. Firmin served under Hyppolite as minister of
finance, commerce, and foreign relations. In 1891 he played a key role in negotia-
tions with U.S. Minister to Haiti Frederick Douglass and Admiral Bancroft Gherardi
to establish a U.S. naval base in Haiti's deepwater harbor at Mole St. Nicholas.
Firmin stood against leasing the Mole to the United States, arguing that if the Haitian
government unconditionally surrendered sovereign territory to any foreign power,
nationalist sentiment would grip the population and incite rebellions. He was later
recognized as having played a critical role in keeping the Mole St. Nicholas under
Haitian control. Firmin was appointed minister to France in 1900, and two years later
he returned to Haiti as the leader of an insurrection that was defeated by government
forces at Port-au-Prince. After leading a second failed insurrection in 1910, Firmin
died in nearhy St. Thomas, EAAH, 2:19.

447.2-4 Our lirst conference ... of January. 1891] Douglass's recollection is cor-
rect. The formal opening of the negotiations for the Mole St. Nicholas began on the
afternoon of 28 January 1891 at Hyppolite's presidential palace. Present at the three-
hour conference were Douglass, Rear Admiral Bancroft Gherardi, Lieutenant Huse
(Gherardi's interpreter). Haitian Prime Minister Antenor Joseph Firmin, and President
Hyppolite. Himelhoch, "Frederick Douglass and Haiti's Mole St. Nicolas," 174.

448.20 Legitime] Francois-Denis Legitime (1842-1935) was agricultural minis-
ter in the cabinet of Haitian President Louis Felicite (Lysius) Salomon. When the
latter was overthrown in August 1888, Legitime attempted to succeed him. The sup-
porters of Louis M. F. Hyppolite disputed the legitimacy of Legitime's election on 16
December 1888 as the fourteenth president of Haiti. At the start of the eight-month
civil war that followed, Legitime held control of only the capital of Port-au-Prince and
a portion of Haiti's south. The loyalty of the nation's navy to Legitime, however,
allowed him to declare a blockade of ports commanded by Hyppolite. His regime
even won recognition from the major European powers as the legitimate government
of the whole country. Thanks in part to the United States' refusal to recognize
Legitime's government or its blockade. Hyppolite's strength grew. By the time
President Benjamin Harrison finally recognized the authority of Legitime's rule in
June 1889, he controlled only the immediate area around Port-au-Prince. On 22
August 1889 Legitime conceded defeat and sailed into exile. Legitime lived in Paris
for a time but returned to Haiti in 1896, remaining there until his death. Jacques-
Nicholas Leger, Haiti, Her History and Her Detractors (1907; Westport, Conn.,