John Edmonstone

[1] Born into slavery on a wood plantation in Demerara, British Guiana (present-day Guyana, South America), he was given the surname of his slave-owner, Charles Edmonstone, who owned the plantation and also owned the Cardross Park estate at Cardross, near Dumbarton in Scotland.

Around 1812 the plantation was visited by the naturalist Charles Waterton, who spent considerable time teaching John Edmonstone taxidermy.

[7] Edmonstone gave Darwin inspiring accounts of tropical rain forests in South America and may have encouraged him to explore there.

[8] In 2009, a plaque to commemorate Edmonstone was commissioned by the London arts venue Kings Place, to be made by the Wedgwood porcelain firm.

[11] A poem narrated from the perspective of John Edmonstone appears in the Winter 2019 issue of African American Review.