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[lightskintwin]

Jack Daniel’s Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help From a Slave

This year is the 150th anniversary of Jack Daniel’s, and the distillery, home to one of the world’s best-selling whiskeys, is using the occasion to tell a different, more complicated tale. Daniel, the company now says, didn’t learn distilling from Dan Call, but from a man named Nearis Green — one of Call’s slaves.

For years, the prevailing history of American whiskey has been framed as a lily-white affair, centered on German and Scots-Irish settlers who distilled their surplus grains into whiskey and sent it to far-off markets, eventually creating a $2.9 billion industry and a product equally beloved by Kentucky colonels and Brooklyn hipsters.

Left out of that account were men like Nearis Green. Slavery and whiskey, far from being two separate strands of Southern history, were inextricably entwined. Enslaved men not only made up the bulk of the distilling labor force, but they often played crucial skilled roles in the whiskey-making process. In the same way that white cookbook authors often appropriated recipes from their black cooks, white distillery owners took credit for the whiskey.

Slaves did more than just provide physical labor. If Green taught Daniel to distill, said Michael Twitty, a food historian, he probably would have drawn on generations of liquor-making skills: American slaves had their own traditions of alcohol production, going back to the corn beer and fruit spirits of West Africa, and many Africans made alcohol illicitly while in slavery.

Another aspect of the Jack Daniel’s tradition that is being reassessed is the so-called Lincoln County process, in which unaged whiskey is passed through several feet of maple charcoal, which removes impurities and imparts a slight sweetness.

According to legend, the process was invented in 1825 by a white Tennessean named Alfred Eaton. But Mr. Eddy, the Jack Daniel’s historian, and others now say it’s just as likely that the practice evolved from slave distilling traditions, in which charcoal helped remove some of the sting from illicitly made alcohol.

Mike Veach, a whiskey historian, said the influence of enslaved African distillers may explain a mystery in the development of American whiskey. Traces of German, Scots-Irish and English distilling traditions are evident in the American style, but there’s much that can’t be traced to an earlier source — a gap that slave traditions might fill.

“I don’t know what role slaves would have played,” Mr. Veach said, “but I’m sure it was there.”

History of America.

 

[HStallion]

White America taking credit for a black man's hardwork and creations and getting famous and rich for it instead. White history month should just be about all the things white people took from Black folk over the years.

 

[ReadingRambo]

White America taking credit for a black man's hardwork and creations and getting famous and rich for it instead. White history month should just be about all the things white people took from Black folk over the years.

In a thread about literally giving credit where it was due.

 

[Slayven]

In a thread about literally giving credit where it was due.

Just took them 150 years

 

[HStallion]

In a thread about literally giving credit where it was due.

After 150 years.

 

[lightskintwin]

In a thread about literally giving credit where it was due.

After 150 years and billions of dollars later.

 

[bobbychalkers]

I wonder if Green has any living descendants.

 

[Byronic Hero]

Just took them 150 years

After 150 years.

After 150 years and billions of dollars later.

Damn. Thrice.

Not surprising though.

 

[Slayven]

I wonder if Green has any living descendants.

lol you know they made sure there was none before announcing this

 

[mreddie]

What a shock, white guy took credit from a black guys idea.

 

[old manatee]

I wonder if Green has any living descendants.

I'm sure Jack Daniel's waited until there was no one left alive to claim the money.

 

[Palmer_v1]

Now track down his descendants and enrich them.

 

[ThreePiMatt]

I wonder if Green has any living descendants.

I'm sure Jack Daniel's waited until there was no one left alive to claim the money.

Now track down his descandants and enrich them.

Maybe you guys ought to read the article?

 

[DedValve]

White America taking credit for a black man's hardwork and creations and getting famous and rich for it instead. White history month should just be about all the things white people took from Black folk over the years.

Not a bad idea....

 

[Baron von Loathsome]

lol you know they made sure there was none before announcing this

The article does bring up one living descendant:

Despite the recent attention from Jack Daniel’s, Nearis Green’s name is just a faint echo, even among several of his descendants who live in the area. Claude Eady, 91, who worked for the distillery from 1946 to 1989, said he was related to Green “on my mother’s side,” but didn’t know much about him.

“I heard his name around,” he said. “The only thing I knew was that he helped Jack Daniel make whiskey.”

No mention of whether they got any royalties, though.

 

[Mac the KNife]

lol you know they made sure there was none before announcing this

Yep. The lawyers gave this the greenlight.

Edit: Definitely drinking to Nearis Green next round.

 

[Aeana]

lol you know they made sure there was none before announcing this

I know it's fun to be cynical 100% of the time but if you read the article, they mention that he has several descendants still living.

Despite the recent attention from Jack Daniel’s, Nearis Green’s name is just a faint echo, even among several of his descendants who live in the area. Claude Eady, 91, who worked for the distillery from 1946 to 1989, said he was related to Green “on my mother’s side,” but didn’t know much about him.

Although they do not say if they received any recompense.

 

[HStallion]

I know it's fun to be cynical 100% of the time but if you read the article, they mention that he has several descendants still living.



Although they do not say if they received any recompense.

They sent them a free bottle of Jack Daniels with a nice thank you card.

 

[Slayven]

I know it's fun to be cynical 100% of the time but if you read the article, they mention that he has several descendants still living.



Although they do not say if they received any recompense.

existing and being able to claim any royalties are two different things, one i am sure the lawyers made very clear

 

[old manatee]

Maybe you guys ought to read the article?

Well la de da! This guy read the article!

 

[lightskintwin]

"We've been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we're done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil - black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is though... the thing is that just because we're magic doesn't mean we're not real."

 

[Palmer_v1]

existing and being able to claim any royalties are two different things, one i am sure the lawyers made very clear

I was hoping for more of a goodwill gesture by the Jack Daniels people. A million dollars for each surviving descendant is a drop in the bucket for them. The Nearis Green Scholarship Foundation or something.

 

[ReadingRambo]

I was hoping for more of a goodwill gesture by the Jack Daniels people. A million dollars for each surviving descendant is a drop in the bucket for them. The Nearis Green Scholarship Foundation or something.

That'd be a big ask considering it's not even certain what the man's contribution was. It's all in the article. They are basically saying "it is very likely that slaves helped, but to what extent it can't be known." It's hard not to look at this as a purely marketing move.

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

This makes sense for Bourbon, which was developed and distilled in the American south, but American Rye whiskey originated around the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania and in northwest Maryland. This article makes no distinction in the origin story which seems a bit silly. It's entirely possible that slaves were involved in the production of Rye in Pennsylvania in the early years, but slavery was (gradually) abolished in PA by 1780, and nearly gone by 1810, which would have corresponded to the era of the most growth of American Rye whiskey. It just irks me when all whiskey is lumped into the same category. Rye Whiskey was more popular than Bourbon for most of the history of the US, but Prohibition entirely killed the industry because Pennsylvania went so crazy with it.

 

[Yaboosh]

Why would the person who trained Jack Daniel be owed any money for money he made after opening his business?

 

[see5harp]

That'd be a big ask considering it's not even certain what the man's contribution was. It's all in the article. They are basically saying "it is very likely that slaves helped, but to what extent it can't be known."

This. They are saying that HE MAY have contributed the charcoal filter technique. Slaves made up the majority of the labor force, that is the only clear thing in the article.

EDIT: or prior to that slaves may have contributed that part to the process of distillery. It is unclear what he taught Jack Daniel besides "everything" which I don't know how you would ever know.

 

[lightskintwin]

That'd be a big ask considering it's not even certain what the man's contribution was. It's all in the article. They are basically saying "it is very likely that slaves helped, but to what extent it can't be known."

No it is known that Jack Daniel learned his distilling knowledge and secrets from Nearis Green, a slave, and that Jack Daniel's whiskey is based on this.

 

[old manatee]

Why would the person who trained Jack Daniel be owed any money for money he made after opening his business?

Slavery?

 

[Slayven]

I was hoping for more of a goodwill gesture by the Jack Daniels people. A million dollars for each surviving descendant is a drop in the bucket for them. The Nearis Green Scholarship Foundation or something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks

Modern Medicine only owes it's existence to her, but hey they just gutted her and used her body without permission.

 

[ReadingRambo]

This makes sense for Bourbon, which was developed and distilled in the American south, but American Rye whiskey originated around the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania and in northwest Maryland. This article makes no distinction in the origin story which seems a bit silly. It's entirely possible that slaves were involved in the production of Rye in Pennsylvania in the early years, but slavery was (gradually) abolished in PA by 1780, and nearly gone by 1810, which would have corresponded to the era of the most growth of American Rye whiskey. It just irks me when all whiskey is lumped into the same category. Rye Whiskey was more popular than Bourbon for most of the history of the US, but Prohibition entirely killed the industry because Pennsylvania went so crazy with it.

I'm not an expert but JD is a Tennessee Sour Mash no? Is it different to an American Rye?

 

[NH Apache]

I'm not an expert but JD is a Tennessee Sour Mash no? Is it different to an American Rye?

Yes. Rye whiskey is different, both in process and taste.

 

[ReadingRambo]

No it is known that Jack Daniel learned his distilling knowledge and secrets from Nearis Green, a slave, and that Jack Daniel's whiskey is based on this.

Oh. The article seems to state it's more a widely agreed upon legend that hadn't ever been definitively proven.

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

I'm not an expert but JD is a Tennessee Sour Mash no? Is it different to an American Rye?

Tennessee whiskey meets all of the branding requirements for bourbon, it's just produced in Tennessee. I think the bourbon label gets rejected as a marketing ploy because there's basically not a significant difference between them and any other Bourbon except a filtration process.

It's very different from Rye. Bourbon requires a 51% corn mash, where as Rye needs to be majority Rye. There are less strict barreling requirements for Rye as well.

 

[lightskintwin]

Oh. The article seems to state it's more a widely agreed upon legend that hadn't ever been definitively proven.

Did you read it?

According to a 1967 biography, “Jack Daniel’s Legacy,” by Ben A. Green (no relation to Nearis), Call told his slave to teach Daniel everything he knew. “Uncle Nearest is the best whiskey maker that I know of,” the book quotes Call as saying.

 

[TaterTots]

.

 

[ReadingRambo]

Did you read it?

With all respect, that's not proof enough to warrant any sort of payout (which is what I originally commented on to the other poster). edit: And I suspect they know that.

 

[see5harp]

That last paragraph does sorta make it sound like a bit of a marketing move on the company's part. It helps reinforce the authenticity of the product, and even if there was first hand accounts of the specific contributions he made, I don't know if you'd ever be able to quantify those parts within their specific brewing technique which is a mash up of a lot of European distilling technique.

 

[lightskintwin]

With all respect, that's not proof enough to warrant any sort of payout (which is what I originally commented on to the other poster).

Of course not, he was a slave and lord forbid any reparations are owed. It's not like the actual billion dollar company Jack Daniel's haven't just acknowledged this history through the article or anything.

That last paragraph does sorta make it sound like a bit of a marketing move on the company's part. It helps reinforce the authenticity of the product, and even if there was first hand accounts of the specific contributions he made, I don't know if you'd ever be able to quantify those parts within their specific brewing technique which is a mash up of a lot of European distilling technique.

The last paragraph is speaking about the American distilling industry as a whole and contributions of Black slaves.

 

[HStallion]

With all respect, that's not proof enough to warrant any sort of payout (which is what I originally commented on to the other poster). edit: And I suspect they know that.

Its not about the payout, its the fact that they are using the fact they might have ripped off a slave a 150 years after the fact to sell their product. Oh hey our company acknowledged a black man who lived in bondage over a century ago that might have made us who we are today, now buy our product! They weren't saying anything positive or at all about this guy during the 60's.

 

[Ultryx]

Nothing written in stone at this point. Probably a good PR move by Jack Daniels. Queue everyone saying Jack Daniels owes millions of dollars though.

Edit: I should specify if the recipe was actually stolen from a slave, then I believe the family is owed money. If not, just makes for an interesting story for the company and continues to show the roots of slavery within this country.

 

[ReadingRambo]

Of course not, he was a slave and lord forbid any reparations are owed. It's not like the actual billion dollar company Jack Daniel's haven't just acknowledged this history through the article or anything.

And they acknowledged it in the most non-committal way possible. I said I think it's a marketing move. Jack Daniel's isn't about to pave the way for slave reparations in the US.

 

[ReadingRambo]

Its not about the payout, its the fact that they are using the fact they might have ripped off a slave a 150 years after the fact to sell their product. Oh hey our company acknowledged a black man who lived in bondage over a century ago that might have made us who we are today, now buy our product! They weren't saying anything positive or at all about this guy during the 60's.

The conversation you quoted sure was. Please don't take my comments out of context to make your points about something else.

 

[see5harp]

That's the thing, the American versions often had innovations not present in any European methods. African traditions could explain that.

For sure. That much is clear that all of that European technique was mashed up even more here in the south. I'm just saying to quantify how much that piece of the puzzle is worth would be nigh impossible. Jack Daniels is one of many companies producing whiskey. It's not like every Vietnamese restaurant serving bahn mi gotta pay reparations to French people for introducing the fucking baguette and pate.

 

[HStallion]

The conversation you quoted sure was. Please don't take my comments out of context to make your points about something else.

Its a forum buddy. I'll make whatever comment I want within the confines of the rules here.

Edit: I also put no words in your mouth. I was just pointing out that its not about paying the ancestors of Nearis Green but how its a bull shit marketing move on JD's part. Oh hey remember that black piece of property our founder owned? Well we're going to say how great he is a 150 years later! Thanks slavery and oppression!

 

[lightskintwin]

And they acknowledged it in the most non-committal way possible. I said I think it's a marketing move. Jack Daniel's isn't about to pave the way for slave reparations in the US.

So you're saying there's no truth to this? I was using reparation specifically in this case, and not the US as a whole though that's whole other discussion.

 

[ReadingRambo]

So you're saying there's no truth to this? I was using reparation specifically in this case, and not the US as a whole though that's whole other discussion.

No, I know my history. Slaves were integral to every industry in which they were used. Yeah I really don't want to make this a reparation discusison.

 

[Cymbal Head]

Damn I wish I had known "Whiskey Historian" was a profession when I went to college.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Now this is cultural appropriation.

 

[lightskintwin]

No, I know my history. Slaves were integral to every industry in which they were used. Yeah I really don't want to make this a reparation discusison.

Agreed, I'll use owed royalties and recognition in this case. Come to think about it from a marketing standpoint, I don't see why Jack Daniel's couldn't create a Nearis Green line of whiskey and promote to an "urban" demographic with the proceeds going to Green descendants.

 

[see5harp]

The last paragraph is speaking about the American distilling industry as a whole and contributions of Black slaves.

I was more referring to this line:

Despite the recent attention from Jack Daniel’s, Nearis Green’s name is just a faint echo, even among several of his descendants who live in the area. Claude Eady, 91, who worked for the distillery from 1946 to 1989, said he was related to Green “on my mother’s side,” but didn’t know much about him.

Even if there were super detailed accounts somewhere of him teaching Jack Daniels via spoken word and written instruction, even his descendants know his name only in passing.