The history of the world can not be told completely without the immeasurable contributions of the Black man to every field of human endeavor. The contributions of John Edmonstone to the works of Charles Darwin, is more evidence that Black people are not an inferior race.

Charles Darwin is renowned for his Theory of Evolution. But he could not have achieved all that without the guidance and teachings of a Black man John Edmonstone. John was a Guyanese slave, who was born in Demerara, Guyana. While he was still enslaved to Charles Edmonstone, in a plantation in Warrows Place, Mibiri Creek, in South America, John learnt taxidermy.

He was taught taxidermy by his master's son in-law, a British naturalist, named Charles Waterton. Waterton usually took John Edmonstone for his expeditions and bird collecting studies, where John stuffed captured birds to prevent them from decomposing.

In 1817, Charles Edmonstone freed John Edmonstone after they had travelled to Scotland. Ten years before that, the British empire had outlawed the purchase and use of slaves within the Empire, by passing the Slave Trade Act of 1807.

Shortly after that, Charles Edmonstone and his wife moved back to Cardross Park, Dunbarstonshire, Scotland, where he was from. John Edmonstone then a free man, moved to Edinburgh. He lived on the same street with Charles Darwin and his brother Erasmus. He worked at the Natural History Museum, where he made a living from stuffing birds. He also taught taxidermy to students at the Edinburgh University.

Charles Darwin was sent to Edinburgh by his family to study medicine, just like his father and grandfather before him. He was 17 years old when he arrived at Edinburgh. After a little while, he realized he was not cut-out to be a doctor. This was because he always trembled during surgery, and found the lectures very exhausting and uninteresting.

Darwin hired John Edmonstone to teach him taxidermy in his first winter in Endinburgh, and paid him one guinea per week. As time went by, Charles Darwin learned more and more about Taxidermy and was turning into a professional.

While Charles was under the guidance of John Edmonstone, he also learned a great lot about the plantation life and lush rainforest filled with wildlife in Guyana. 

Taxidermy was not the only thing Charles Darwin learnt from John Edmonstone. He also learnt a lot about the anti-slavery ideals of John. And many people have suggested that the anti-slavery beliefs of his teacher would have contributed greatly to Darwin's Theory of Evolution. This greatly added to his interest in Guyana.

At that point, Guyana was making headlines all around the world, because of the slave rebellions going on, and how the British had crushed it. Darwin's interest in Guyana at the time would have also been sparked by a book titled "Wanderings in South America" written by Waterton, about his expeditions in Guyana.

In his memoir, Charles Darwin described his teacher, John Edmonstone, as "an intimate" man. His memoir further went on to say that John Edmonston “was a very pleasant and intelligent man,” and “I spent many hours in conversation at his side.”

After learning natural history and taxidermy from John Edmonstone, Charles Darwin dropped out of the medical school of Edinburgh. A little while after that, he signed up as a "gentleman's companion" to HMS Beagle Captain FitzRoy. While at the job, he collected biological specimens, conversed with him, and also did other tasks for FitzRoy.

While accompanying FitzRoy, Charles Darwin collected and preserved 15 finches (birds) from Galapagos, with the same technique John Edmonstone had taught him.

Darwin initially thought that birds were all of the same species as the ones he captured in South America. To verify his findings, he had to send the specimens to John Gould, who was a British ornithologist. After studying the specimens, John Gould concluded that they were from 12 distinct species of Finches.

After continuous and extensive studies, Darwin then proposed that the finches had all evolved from a common ancestor in South America, which eventually migrated to Galapagos and diversified into various species which adapted to the different islands they inhabited.

Charles Darwin, through his theory and beliefs, challenged the notion that white people were superior to black people. This belief of his also influenced his research into the theory of evolution. The beliefs are believed to have been made solid by his extended family, the Wedgwoods, who strongly opposed slavery.

In the book "Darwin's Sacred Cause", Andrian Desmond and James Moore wrote that “How often, too, Darwin must have seen amiable John Edmonstone … in these oppressed peoples...”