GBN Daily Drop for May 1, 2022 (bonus): Nathan "Nearest" Green, Master Distiller

Did you know a Black man helped build the most iconic black-labeled whiskey known the world over? In the 1850s, a young Jack Daniel apprenticed under Nathan “Nearest” Green, an enslaved distiller, who employed a special process to make whiskey smooth.

By the 1860s, Green reportedly became the wealthiest African American person in Lynchburg, Tennessee, and seven generations of Green’s family have worked for the Jack Daniel Distillery.

To learn more about Green and his legacy (his son George Green is in the episode's photo), check out nearestgreen.org, read 1967’s Jack Daniel’s Legacy by Ben A. Green (no relation), the first book to highlight Green’s contribution to the iconic whiskey brand, and watch The Story of Nearest Green, the short film featuring Emmy and Tony Award winning actor Jeffrey Wright.

Sources:

• https://www.nearestgreen.com/about-nearest-green/

• https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/dining/jack-daniels-whiskey-nearis-green-slave.html

• https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-nearest-green-americas-first-known-black-master-distiller-164311?fbclid=IwAR3EEs12skCmy7s9BWUHT_4Rk75plFqUadxcOt_qFc8Ctt_2QHozDjrn2M8

• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nearest-green-slave-who-taught-jack-daniel-how-to-make-whiskey/

• https://www.npr.org/2021/10/01/1042481944/uncle-nearest-premium-whiskey-fawn-weaver

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominiquefluker/2022/03/09/how-fawn-weaver-created-uncle-nearest-premium-whiskey-from-hidden-history/?sh=79f9535cfea9