Jack Daniel's First Distiller

Around the time that article was published, Fred Minnick (who was quoted in the piece) wrote some more about the topic of slavery and how it relates to the U.S. whiskey industry on his site:

fredminnick.com/2017/02/…

@Nelom - Thanks for the link.

I knew about G. Washington and his involvement in making distilling without a licence illegal - call me a fool but I suspect he may have had some ulterior motives . . .

It's all very interesting. I've been slowly delving deeper into America's history over the last few years. That slaves had the skills from rum production makes perfect sense and, like the author suggests, looking at the images one gets the impression that there was mutual respect. I can only surmise that advertising this 'association' back then was, sadly, not going to assist sales!?

Fair play to JD as well for not 'cashing in' on this discovery.

@RianC

Fair play to JD as well for not 'cashing in' on this discovery.

Yeah, that's one way of looking at it, and I don't fully disagree. At the same time, I think it would be very cool if they released a Nathan Green edition of their Master Distiller series of bottlings. I suppose since he never officially held the Master Distiller title, it'd have to be an honourary release, but that'd still be a worthwhile recognition I think.

@Nelom - ' I think it would be very cool if they released a Nathan Green edition of their Master Distiller series of bottlings '

Yeah, I'd go with that as well.

I don't think the rules are as strict about who you call a master distiller on a commemorative bottle as, say, what can be called bourbon.

Saw this and thought of this thread:

cbsnews.com/amp/news/…

For the click-averse, the nutshell of it is that there's a line of whiskies called "Uncle Nearest" named to honour (and cash-in on) Nathan Green.

If I may add my two cents. I remember initially that the Brown Forman folks were not exactly forthcoming and willing to admit to impact and legacy of Nathan Green, they had plenty of time before 2017 to talk about this. I'm happy that they have but it still feels like a footnote.

As @RianC mentions there is a long history of slaves being used for their expertise, this occurred all over the Carribean in distilling but also with agriculture in the US. There would be no Carolina gold rice, gumbo, hopping John and such without them.

As for the Uncle nearest whisky brand. Is it really cashing in? I don't know truly? Some of the positives,there is a foundation set up with some of the profits going to a scholarship for the descendents of Nathan Green. They seem to want to honor his legacy a lot more than BF does and the CEO is a an African American woman, a doubly underrepresented segment in whisky.

@cricklewood - Good post. I'm kinda with you on all fronts but just to play Devil's Advocate, if I may? When you say BF mention it as feeling like a footnote, could it not be viewed as a kind of damned if they do damned if they don't scenario (at least in 2017)?

Anyway, the truth will out, as they say, and I hope that this history of American distilling is brought more to the public's attention. Not necessarily as a cashing in opportunity though

They talk a fair amount about Nathan Green on the JD tour. They said if it wasn’t for him then JD would not exist as it does today. He is actually standing next to Jack in the pictures of the crew and that would have been a big deal in Tennessee during that time and probably didn’t sit well with a lot of people. So kudos to them for having the balls to stand up to the status quo.

I haven't been on the tour so I shoulder my guilt for claiming it didn't feature more extensively in their current set-up much thanks @casualtorture for pointing it out.

I do know that while the information is shared now it came after many years of wilful silence, that's just what irritates me in the proceedings. I'm not looking to rouse any ill or stir the pot, it's just the first question that comes to my mind when I hear of this kind of story. I don't think it's necessarily about shame more than it suited their narrative, until it no longer could.

Anyhow that's the last I'll mention of this, don't want to derail the conversation. I've got nothing againts Brown Forman, I think they've been doing some great work and innovations in the last few years.