Historic photo of Jack Daniel (in white hat) seated next to George Green, the son of Nathan "Nearest" Green. "The stories that have been passed down about the care that Jack Daniel took to always acknowledge … the Green family." "The best knowledge that we have is that they had a mentor-and-mentee sort of a relationship, and I would say, a friendship," says Blevins. Daniel, a boy who worked for Call, became Green's apprentice and learned the special technique that gave the Tennessee whiskey its smooth taste.Īfter emancipation in 1863, when enslaved people in rebel states were freed, Daniel purchased Call's distillery and hired Green as Jack Daniel Distillery's first master distiller. Green, who had a reputation as a skilled distiller, made whiskey for Call, using a sugar maple charcoal filtering process that is believed to have originated in West Africa. In the mid-1800s, Green's slaveholders hired him out to a local preacher named Dan Call. The story begins in Lynchburg, Tennessee, current home of the Jack Daniel Distillery. In the past, we did not amplify it the way that we could have in earlier eras, but we're about the future and moving forward."Īmerica's first-known Black master distiller "We're very proud of this story and are very committed to amplifying it and acknowledging that. "The truth of the matter is, Nearest Green was the first head distiller of Jack Daniels whiskey," says Matt Blevins, global brand director for Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey.
I don't know if it was because he was a Black man."īut people believe it now - in large part because Brown-Forman Corporation, owner of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, has acknowledged the foundational role Green played in the brand's development. And people didn't believe it … it's hurtful. … "He made the whiskey, and he taught Jack Daniel. "We've always known," says Debbie Staples, a great-great-granddaughter of Green's who heard the story from her grandmother. Jack Daniel's is the world's most popular whiskey brand, but until recently, few people knew the liquor was created by Nathan "Nearest" Green, an enslaved Black man who mentored Daniel.
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