Historical Spotlight: Nathan “Nearest” Green

From the beginning of time, Black Americans have had integral roles in creating, inventing, and developing many of the modern luxuries we take for granted today. Unfortunately, many of the early Black pioneers weren’t credited for their hard work. Join me as we shine a Historical Spotlight on Nathan “Nearest” Green, the master distiller who created the original recipe for Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey. 

Nathan, also known as Nearest Green or “Uncle Nearest”, was originally born in Maryland in 1820, but spent the majority of his life in Lynchburg, Tennessee. He’s known as the first Black American master distiller. Nearest was married to Harriet Green, and they had 11 children together. Documentation suggests he worked on a farm owned by Dan Call, a country preacher, grocer, and distiller in Lincoln County. 

He specialized in a process known as sugar maple charcoal filtering that gave his whiskey a unique smoothness. The process infamously became known as the Lincoln County process - the only real difference between bourbon and Tennessee whiskey - and the method is believed to have originated from slaves. Nearest’s whiskey was the best in the area, so much so that he grew a reputation for being a skilled distiller.

In the mid 1850’s, a young white boy legally named Jasper Newton and later known as Jack Daniel, started working on the farm as a chore boy. After a while, Dan introduced Jack to Nearest and said, “This is Uncle Nearest. He’s the best whiskey maker I know of,” and asked him to teach the young boy everything he knew about distilling. 

As the years went on, Jack continued learning from Nearest, eventually selling Uncle Nearest’s unique whiskey in neighboring towns to soldiers during the civil war and boosting its popularity. The Emancipation Proclamation freed Nearest, but he continued to work with Dan and Jack in the distillery. After the Civil War ended, Jack eventually bought the distillery from Dan, renamed it after himself, and asked Nearest to be his first master distiller. 

As business boomed, Jack purchased a new property for his operations in 1866, but Nearest decided to retire. His three sons - Lewis, Eli, and George - all continued his tradition and legacy of making the best whiskey in the area by going to work at the new distillery. Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey has employed a total of seven straight generations of Nearest’s descendants since its inception. 

Fawn Weaver, entrepreneur and author, founded the Nearest Green Foundation to commemorate the hard work and success of the famous distiller. The foundation has opened a museum, created a memorial park, written a book, and established college scholarships for Nearest’s descendants. She also co-founded Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey in July 2017 and serves as the chief historian. 

While Jack attempted to do the right thing by Nearest, it’s impossible to just ignore the fact that he used the knowledge gained from Nearest to go forward and create a multi-million dollar business. It’s hard to know just how much revenue share Nearest received considering the race relations of the time. Ideally, he would’ve had just as much stake in the company as Jack, considering it was his special process that created the winning product. 

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Signed, 

Jessica Marie