The colonial roots of your morning cocoa and the forgotten experts behind natural history
In short: We often credit European explorers for discoveries like hot chocolate or evolutionary specimens, but these breakthroughs relied on the hidden labor and expertise of enslaved and Indigenous people. From Hans Sloane’s Jamaican cocoa to Charles Darwin’s taxidermy tutor, the history of science is far more collaborative—and exploitative—than textbooks suggest.
The Natural History Museum in London holds over 80 million objects, yet the origins of many foundational pieces remain obscured by colonial narratives. A significant portion of the museum’s original collection came from Sir Hans Sloane, a seventeenth-century doctor who spent time in Jamaica. While Sloane is frequently credited with inventing drinking chocolate after encountering cocoa there, historical evidence confirms that local Jamaicans were preparing the beverage long before his arrival. Sloane’s fortune was built on this commercial exploitation of local knowledge, and his collection of over 800 specimens was often assembled with the direct assistance of enslaved people whose names were rarely recorded.
This pattern of erasure extends to some of the most famous figures in scientific history. Charles Darwin, for instance, gained his essential taxidermy skills from John Edmonstone, a formerly enslaved man from Guyana. Edmonstone’s expertise in preserving bird skins was instrumental to the collection of specimens that later supported Darwin’s theory of evolution during his voyage on the HMS Beagle. Similarly, the Surinamese natural scientist Graman Kwasi discovered the medicinal properties of the plant Quassia amara. While Kwasi used his discovery to gain his own freedom, his legacy is now immortalized in the Natural History Museum’s Hintze Hall, where a painting of the plant adorns the ceiling.
The contributions of Black people during the British Empire and the transatlantic slave trade were often ignored or attributed solely to European naturalists. Indigenous and enslaved individuals provided the critical local knowledge required to navigate landscapes and identify specimens that collectors could not have found independently. As curators like Miranda Lowe CBE highlight, the museum is now working to reveal these untold stories. By re-examining these collections, we can better understand how the history of natural science was shaped by the expertise of those whose names were systematically left out of the official record.
The legacy of these figures remains a complex subject. While Graman Kwasi achieved financial success through his botanical research, he remains a controversial figure in historical accounts. These stories serve as a reminder that the history of the natural world is deeply intertwined with the history of colonialism, and that acknowledging the contributions of forgotten experts is essential to a complete understanding of scientific progress.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Untold stories: Hans Sloane and hot chocolate | Black natural history
- Also: Black history at the Natural History Museum | Natural History Museum
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