HISTORY: THE REAL STORY OF JACK DANIEL’S

 

HISTORY

 THE REAL STORY OF JACK DANIEL’S

Jasper Newton Daniel was an American distiller and businessman, best known as the founder of the Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distillery.

Daniel was the youngest of ten children born to Calaway and Lucinda Matilda Daniel.

He was of Scots-Irish, Scottish, and Welsh descent; his grandfather, Joseph "Job" Daniel, was born in Wales, while his grandmother, Elizabeth Calaway, was born in Scotland.

His paternal grandparents emigrated to the United States in the late 18th century.

It was long believed that Daniel was taught how to make whiskey by a wealthy landowner and Lutheran preacher named Dan Call.  

However, his true teacher was Nathan Green, who had been rented out by his owners to Call.

In 1864 Jack left home and was taken in by Reverend Dan Call. At the Call family farm, he learnt the art of whiskey making from the preacher and an enslaved man named Nathan “Nearest” Green. Jack would later hire “Nearest” as the Jack Daniel Distillery's head distiller, what we call the Master Distiller today.

Green essentially took Daniel under his wing and went on to work for his whiskey business after the end of the Civil War.

Green's contribution was more of an open secret, whose story has been passed down for generations. After more than 150 years, Brown-Forman, the company that owns Jack Daniel's, officially recognized Green as the first master distiller (Jack as the second).

Much of the history behind American whiskey has often been centered on Scots-Irish and other European distilling traditions; however, enslaved men were heavily involved in the distilling process and provided more than just physical labor. Many of the enslaved people in the South had intimate knowledge of alcohol production techniques that originated from West Africa.

Nathan Green's contribution is now acknowledged on the official Jack Daniel's website and in their distillery tours in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Interestingly enough, the distillery is located in a dry county and cannot sell any liquor.

They get around the law by selling commemorative Jack Daniel's bottles that just happen to have whiskey in them.

 

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