السلام عليكم و رحمة الله
Like all fathers they want their son(s) to gain a good education, a decent job and a happy life. So was the father of Charles Darwin. Robert Erasmus Darwin[1] (the father of Charles Darwin - the picture on the right) told his son, with definite pressure, to go to Edinburgh University (in Scotland) to learn all the things a doctor requires. That included dissecting human and nonhuman bodies. This involved seeing chopped up flesh, real organs, real blood - raw and uncensored.
But poor Darwin simply couldn't take it. He could not take the sight of blood. So he decided to make his way in the University by not concentrating, not focusing, walking around the grand fields of Edinburgh, wishing for holidays and just having a chill.
One of the things Darwin did to chill was to learn how to stuff birds.[2] What is surprising is that the man who taught Darwin how to do this was a black man. His name was John Edmonstone.[3] John asked for one guinea per hour for two months[4] which was cheap. Darwin enjoyed the time he spent with John and learn a lot from him. John was described by Darwin as an "intelligent" and "pleasant" man.[5] Despite the fact that Darwin was taught by a "negro" in late 1820's (way before he was a evolutionist) he, later on in his life, after converting to evolutionism (or transmutationism as Darwin first called it), claimed that savages (all black people) are inferior in knowledge, ape-like creatures (at least some were) and nowhere near the standard and intelligence of the white. This is how Charles Darwin repaid John Edmonstone.
Reference
1. I added the word "Erasmus" since Erasmus was the father of Robert. The father of any son/daughter should have their name in the middle name of their son/daughter.
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpsQjDkNpMo This is a video about what stuffing is if you didn't know.
3. Even though there is doubt if he really was John Edmonstone. R. B. Freeman explains why there is a doubt and concludes, "A tentative conclusion, with unresolved problems, is that Darwin's negro bird-stuffer was John Edmonstone, originally a slave of Charles Edmonstone of Warrows Place, Mibiri Creek, Demerara River, British Guiana. He came to Scotland, with his master, in 1817, first for a brief period in Glasgow and then, at least in 1823, moved to Edinburgh where he still was in 1833". Quoted in R. B. Freeman, Darwin's Negro Bird-Stuffer, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 33. No. 1 (Aug., 1978), pages 83-86.
4. Adrian Desmond & James Moore, 1992, Darwin, Penguin, page 28.
5. Janet Browne, 1995, Charles Darwin: Voyaging, Pimlico, page 66
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| Robert Erasmus Darwin |
But poor Darwin simply couldn't take it. He could not take the sight of blood. So he decided to make his way in the University by not concentrating, not focusing, walking around the grand fields of Edinburgh, wishing for holidays and just having a chill.
One of the things Darwin did to chill was to learn how to stuff birds.[2] What is surprising is that the man who taught Darwin how to do this was a black man. His name was John Edmonstone.[3] John asked for one guinea per hour for two months[4] which was cheap. Darwin enjoyed the time he spent with John and learn a lot from him. John was described by Darwin as an "intelligent" and "pleasant" man.[5] Despite the fact that Darwin was taught by a "negro" in late 1820's (way before he was a evolutionist) he, later on in his life, after converting to evolutionism (or transmutationism as Darwin first called it), claimed that savages (all black people) are inferior in knowledge, ape-like creatures (at least some were) and nowhere near the standard and intelligence of the white. This is how Charles Darwin repaid John Edmonstone.
Reference
1. I added the word "Erasmus" since Erasmus was the father of Robert. The father of any son/daughter should have their name in the middle name of their son/daughter.
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpsQjDkNpMo This is a video about what stuffing is if you didn't know.
3. Even though there is doubt if he really was John Edmonstone. R. B. Freeman explains why there is a doubt and concludes, "A tentative conclusion, with unresolved problems, is that Darwin's negro bird-stuffer was John Edmonstone, originally a slave of Charles Edmonstone of Warrows Place, Mibiri Creek, Demerara River, British Guiana. He came to Scotland, with his master, in 1817, first for a brief period in Glasgow and then, at least in 1823, moved to Edinburgh where he still was in 1833". Quoted in R. B. Freeman, Darwin's Negro Bird-Stuffer, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 33. No. 1 (Aug., 1978), pages 83-86.
4. Adrian Desmond & James Moore, 1992, Darwin, Penguin, page 28.
5. Janet Browne, 1995, Charles Darwin: Voyaging, Pimlico, page 66
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