Reading this in 2017 it's easy to take a lot of Firmin's ideas for granted. At the time this was written, he was one of the few 'learned men' to have these ideas of equality among races. This doesn't mean his work is outdated (far from!). 130+ years later there are quite a few questions he poses that we still need to ask ourselves. Brilliant and brave piece of literature. It's unfortunate that this Haitian scholar isn't more widely read.