We’re fortunate enough to now live in a world where there’s no shortage of black names who have had the opportunity to make an impact on the world of science. There’s a long list of academics included – such as the chemists Dr. Larry Robinson and Jerome Nriagu.
It’s clear that people of colour are now getting a much overdue chance to shine and contribute to the field, something that wasn’t always possible just a few hundred years ago. There are, of course, exceptions to this – like John Edmonstone.
John was born a slave in 1793 – and despite the limitations of the time – would indirectly go on to play his part in one of history’s biggest scientific discoveries: Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
How did this come about? Well, it all began on a timber plantation in South America.
A Slave and a Prodigy?
John Edmonstone was born into slavery. While the tide was beginning to turn on the Slave Trade in the late 1700s, Edmonstone wouldn’t have known this during his early years in what’s now Guyana. He was the property of Scotsman Charles Edmonstone, the man from whom he was given the surname that he’d keep throughout his life.
Unlike men such as Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano, Edmonstone didn’t have the opportunity to write a slave narrative before his death. This means that we know very little about his experience on the plantation – except that there were frequent high profile visitors.
One of the most well-known individuals who would visit was famed naturalist Charles Waterton. A friend of Edmonstone’s master, he actually took it upon himself to teach the young slave new methods on how to preserve bird skins.
Edmonstone clearly had talent because he would later go on to become a renowned taxidermist. In fact, it was a skill that he would share with many others before all was said and done – including Charles Darwin.
The Taste of Freedom
Edmonstone was further able to perfect his craft as he accompanied Waterton on expeditions around South America, but – despite his valuable assistance – he remained enslaved. That was, however, until he moved back to Scotland with his owner in 1817.
It’s unknown exactly how Edmonstone was treated while a slave under his master or even whether his master would have willfully granted him his freedom. After all, the only reason Edmonstone was able to free himself from the shackles of slavery was that the institution had been banned in Scotland in 1778.
While it’s believed that Edmonstone had initially been intended to become a servant for his master’s family, he actually wasted no time in building his own life – all thanks to his talent as a taxidermist.
The young prodigy had turned into a respected professional, in the process allowing him to make money from his trade. He first took employment in Glasgow before eventually setting up his own business as a bird stuffer in Edinburgh.
Little did he know at the time, but these career moves weren’t just allowing him to enjoy a form of independence that wouldn’t have seemed possible when he was born, but were also putting him on the path to meeting Darwin.
Sshaping Minds
The slave narrative became a massive tool used by black people in the 1800s to enlighten others to the atrocities of slavery. While Edmonstone never put pen to paper in the same way that individuals like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs did, he certainly played his part in changing people’s attitudes.
Edmonstone taught taxidermy from his shop in the Scottish capital, with students including learners from the University of Edinburgh. This allowed him to make a living, reinforce the growing view that people of colour could reach great heights if given the opportunity and, perhaps most importantly, shape people’s views.
This is certainly what he did when a teenage Charles Darwin – who had recently pivoted away from medicine and into the field of natural history – enlisted his skills. Edmonstone would train him in taxidermy during 40 one-hour sessions that took place daily.
The two wouldn’t have realised this at the time, but Edmonstone was actually playing a fundamental role in what would become one of the biggest discoveries in the world of science. Darwin would go on to use these skills as he preserved birds while developing his theory of evolution. This is, of course, the same theory that is still readily accepted to this day.
Hidden from History
Darwin would go on to establish his theory of evolution in the years after his training with Edmonstone. He would visit places like the Galapagos Islands, where he would collect and preserve specimens in the manner in which Edmonstone had taught him to.
History, however, largely doesn’t remember Edmonstone’s role. In fact, he’d be forgotten almost completely if it wasn’t for recollections by Darwin in his autobiography in 1887. The book was released five years after his death, meaning people didn’t have the opportunity to push him for more information about Edmonstone after reading about his role.
Darwin would praise Edmonstone for doing his job ‘excellently’, adding:
“He gave me lessons for payment, and I used often to sit with him, for he was a very pleasant and intelligent man.”
It’s clear from this that Darwin thought a lot of his skilled teacher.
Remembering John Edmonstone
Unfortunately, there’s very little known about the later years of Edmonstone. It’s believed that he spent the remainder of his life in Edinburgh, where there’s no doubt he was able to influence many others in the field of taxidermy.
It seems only fair that Edmonstone is now forever linked to Darwin’s discovery and praised as a man who was instrumental in establishing one of science’s biggest theories.
There’s no way of telling what the world might look like now if it wasn’t for Edmonstone – and this is just one of the many reasons why he’s still celebrated to this day.