Jack Daniels finally acknowledges a Slave created the Recipe

Who knew? And about bloody time. Definitely toasting to Nearis next time l take a shot. :drinkers:

NEARIS GREEN - The slave who taught Jack Daniels how to make whiskey:
Bourbon giant finally acknowledges the truth after 150 years



After 150 years, Jack Daniels has finally revealed that a slave was behind the world-famous recipe of America's most popular whisky.

Until now, the story told was that a white moonshine distiller named Dan Call had taught his young apprentice, Jasper Newton 'Jack' Daniel, how to run his Tennessee distillery.

But it appears that the brand is finally ready to embrace its controversial history after it revealed it was not Dan Call, but one of Call's slaves named Nearis Green who had passed on his distilling experience to Daniel.


Dan Call, Moonshiner and Slave owner


Jack Daniel, Call's Apprentice Distiller


'It's taken something like the anniversary for us to start to talk about ourselves,' Nelson Eddy, Jack Daniel's in-house historian, told the New York Times.

According to a 1967 biography, Jack Daniel's Legacy, Call told his slave to teach Daniel everything he knew.
'Uncle Nearest is the best whiskey maker that I know of,' Call is recorded as having said.

Slavery was brought to an end in 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment.
Daniel opened his own distillery a year later where he employed two of Green's sons.

A photo taken from the time shows a man thought to be one of Green's sons sitting alongside Daniel (in the white hat) and his workers. The 150 year-old photograph is significant as typically, black employees would have been forced to stand at the back.




Green's son and Daniel

His inclusion may have signified that he played an important role at the Jack Daniels distillery.

Yet Nearis Green and his family were all too quick forgotten about until very recently.

Phil Epps, the global brand director for Jack Daniel's at Brown-Forman, which has owned the distillery for 60 years, insists it was not a 'conscious decision' to omit the Greens from the whisky's history.

But at a time when the distillery was trying to market Jack Daniels to the segregated south, it is also unlikely that they would have celebrated its black heritage.

Epps said they had come across the founder story while researching the origin of the whisky.

'As we dug into it, we realized it was something that we could be proud of,' Epps said.

Some critics have criticized the move as a cynical way to target a new market of millennials who are known for 'digging at social issues.' By celebrating the history now, it prevents it coming out later expectantly.

However, the brand claims it's simply keen to set the record straight.

After decades of ignoring the Greens' story, which was well known to local historians, Jack Daniels has accepted the history which will be featured on its distillery tour.

Slaves once made up the majority of men working in the distilling industry and records of slave sales show that their whisky making skills were highly prized.

Historians also believe that certain methods used to create American whiskies, not found in German or British traditions, may have come from ancient African techniques passed down through the generations.


But, like so much else appropriated from enslaved African Americans - from recipes to traditions, the distillery owners would take credit for their slaves' whisky.

And with so little written about the contribution of slaves at the time, historians are left with few clues to how enslaved men and women created American whisky.

Another Jack Daniel's tradition is the Lincoln County process, where unaged whiskey is passed through several feet of maple charcoal to purify the bourbon, leaving it with a slightly sweet flavor.

Once again, the history books credit white Tennessean Alfred Eaton with inventing the technique in 1825. But experts say it is more likely that it stemmed from slaves who would use charcoal to remove the impurities when illicitly brewing their own alcohol.


READ MORE ...

 

Kudos to Jack Daniels for owning up to history. I bet there are a few more of these "secret" histories of American companies.

 

And they say the only thing we contributed to society was peanut butter

 

Do tell. I love me some PB! (Natural kind only of course, no sugar.)
You know, my most favorite soup is West African Chicken Peanut Soup, with fufu. Yum. (*chicken, pre-vegetarian)..so l can see the connection there.

 

Big deal. Are they going to pay the descendants of that slave at least 10% of the current and future revenues.? ...break bread mofo break bread

 

That did occur to me to pay the proven direct descendents of Green's, or at least set up a fund to go towards something that helps disadvantaged youth with apprenticeships.

Furthermore, it's not always about the money, but more about a CLEAR HISTORY of the true facts. People often continue to prosper off lies, so l see it as a big deal in the grand scheme of history.

 

What?

 

Share the money = break bread

 

I agree....
Truth in history is good but repair/restoration are steps toward and or evidence of humility and remorse.

 

Understatement of the century.
And the sad part is most of them we'll never know about.

It sucks how badly this country has tried to erase the contributions of Black folk from its history, which only feeds the disease of racism.

Once again it reinforces the idea that behind every great fortune there's a great crime.:smt074

Jack Daniels and Jim Beam are such deeply Southern whiskeys, I wish they'd said something much earlier about this.

You know there must be no living descendants of Uncle Nearest for Jack Daniels, Inc. to come out with this now.

Legally, Jack Daniels probably isn't obligated to share any profits.
If you have a billion dollar idea and don't patent or copyright the formula, it's 'free' to be stolen.

Besides as an employee anything you create as an employee of a company automatically belongs to the company.

For centuries slaves fed, bathed, cooked, harvested, washed clothes and linen and helped raise the children of slavemasters.

There are several American companies in the South I'm certain that originated on planatations.

Man I don't even like talking about this, the amount of generational wealth that was stolen from the Black community is sickening.:smt078

 

Fantastic but,not surprising since Blacks don't make big money out of the products or talents they produce.

 

This is an awesome thread!

 

Great post.

 

:yawinkle:

Scotch..it's in ye blood.

 

Oh my

 

I can dig it. :smt023

 

LOL. For real though!!! They probably won't be sharing any funds and, if they do, it will be based on "this years earnings"...not all of the decades that Jack Daniels was the drink to drink. I guess they had a little surge recently with the Apple, but you don't see too many club goers drinking Jack and Coke. It's more of a BBQ/get together drink.

 

:smt043:smt043:smt043

Yeah, "break bread" is kind of an old school saying.

Mine too. #BlackIrish

 

Lol

 

As in "come to the table", right?

Oooo...ye have a wee bitta Irish in ya, huh?