Enslaved Workers and Black Distillers in American Whiskey History
“Hanson, a distiller.” The entry in George Washington’s 1799 list of enslaved people is brief, but it records a skilled worker by name and trade. Peter, Nat, Daniel and Timothy appear as distillers too.[1] Their names give substance to a larger history: the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture states that enslaved workers “made up the bulk of distilling labor”. Museum research and historical scholarship also establish that Nathan “Nearest” Green taught Jack Daniel to make Tennessee whiskey.[3][4]
Enslaved workers in American whiskey history
Owning a distillery and knowing how to make its whiskey were not the same thing. NMAAHC notes that some white distillers acknowledged skilled Black workers while taking credit for products and processes that drew on those workers’ knowledge. A history built around proprietors alone can give the recognition to someone other than the person who did the work.[3]
The surviving records reveal different parts of that work. Washington’s list identifies enslaved people by trade. A Kentucky distillery ledger records the rental of enslaved people but leaves them unnamed. Later histories, photographs and oral accounts preserve further traces, but these records do not all answer the same questions about identity, responsibility or working conditions.[1][3][7]
Historian Michael Veach draws attention to that ledger at the Filson Historical Society in Louisville. Its entries document enslaved labour at a distillery, although the compiler omitted the workers’ identities. Veach’s broader assessment of enslaved labour among Kentucky distilling families also rests on limited documentation, a constraint he acknowledges.[7]
These distinctions matter when reading the history. A record may place someone at a distillery without naming them. Another may preserve a name and a trade without explaining the full extent of their skill.
Mount Vernon: the names behind the whiskey
Five names stand out in the transcription of Washington’s 1799 list of enslaved people: Hanson, Peter, Nat, Daniel and Timothy. Each is identified as a distiller. Their connection to the craft is explicit in the surviving record, rather than assigned later through a general account of plantation labour.[1]
The heading above those entries is equally revealing: “Tradesmen, etc. from Martha Washington’s dower”. It identifies people held through Martha Washington’s first marriage rather than owned outright by George Washington. In a few words, the document records both their skilled occupations and the circumstances of their enslavement.[1]
Read those entries individually and the familiar phrase “Washington’s distillery” tells only part of the story. “Hanson, a distiller” brings a person doing the work into view. Peter, Nat, Daniel and Timothy receive the same occupational recognition. How they learned their craft, however, is not recorded in the list.[1]
The number of named distillers is disputed. Mount Vernon names six, including James; the consulted transcription of Washington’s 1799 list identifies five as distillers and does not give James that trade. Neither does the list establish the complete workforce.[1][2] Explore the fuller account in the records of Washington’s distillery.
Nathan “Nearest” Green and Jack Daniel
Nathan “Nearest” Green taught the young Jasper Newton “Jack” Daniel how to make Tennessee whiskey. NMAAHC states this plainly, and Doug Frost and David Wondrich’s entry in The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails likewise identifies Green, rather than Dan Call, as Daniel’s teacher. The Oxford entry describes him as Call’s newly emancipated head distiller.[3][4]
NMAAHC places Green’s birth in Maryland in 1820 and describes his later enslavement in Lynchburg, Tennessee. According to the museum, he was hired out to Call and developed his knowledge of sugar maple charcoal filtering.[3] The filtering method’s origin is disputed. NMAAHC suggests a connection with West African traditions, but the research consulted here included no primary record establishing that origin.[3]
The identity of Green’s legal enslaver also remains disputed. NMAAHC says he was hired out to Call; Middle Tennessee State University says Call rented him out. The consulted record does not establish who legally held him.[3][10] The title first master distiller is disputed as a historical description too: NMAAHC uses it, while the Oxford entry calls Green Call’s head distiller. No period document establishing the former title was consulted.[3][4]
Even the founding date of Jack Daniel’s is disputed. Its label claims 1866; the Oxford entry records competing dates of 1872, 1874 and 1875.[4]
The family connection continued. NMAAHC records that Green’s sons George and Eli and grandsons Ott, Jesse and Charlie worked at the distillery.[3] The separate claim of seven consecutive generations, however, was not reliably established in the consulted sources.
Story box: the teacher behind a familiar name
Story title: Nearest Green’s work and its later recognition
Key person: Nathan “Nearest” Green.[3][4]
Turning point: Ben A. Green’s Jack Daniel’s Legacy recorded Nearest Green’s role in 1967. NMAAHC specifies that the author was not related to him.[3]
Documented record: That account preceded the distillery’s sharing of Green’s story in 2016 by decades.[3][4]
Claim and verdict: Nearest Green taught Jack Daniel to make whiskey. Documented.
What the record shows: Both the museum account and the Oxford reference work identify Green as Daniel’s teacher.[3][4]
Evidence against or gap: None found for the teaching relationship in the supplied record.
Earliest known source: The earliest publication identified in the supplied research is Jack Daniel’s Legacy, 1967, as reported by NMAAHC.[3]
Sources and claim mapping: NMAAHC supports the teaching relationship, the 1967 publication and the author’s lack of family relationship; the Oxford entry supports the teaching relationship and the company’s 2016 recognition.
Last checked: Not documented.
Recognition was not the same as discovery
The distinction is between an existing published history and its later incorporation into the company’s public account, not the discovery of a previously unknown story.[3][4]
NMAAHC credits Fawn Weaver, founder of the Nearest Green Foundation, with researching his life through archival work and Lynchburg oral histories. Those approaches complement one another. Family and community knowledge can guide historical investigation; surviving documents help establish which claims can be supported.[3]
A modern chapter belongs to Green’s descendant Victoria Eady Butler, who became master blender of Uncle Nearest whiskey. In its 2021 account, Middle Tennessee State University identifies her as his great-great-granddaughter and calls her the “first-known African American woman to serve as master blender in the modern spirits industry”. “First-known” is an important part of that recognition.[10]
Butler’s role provides a documented connection between Green’s family and modern whiskey making. His story remains one part of a much wider history, however. Other Black workers made different contributions, and some records preserve their labour without preserving a single name.[1][7]
Kentucky: work beyond the founder’s name
Elijah Craig’s business depended on enslaved workers, according to the brand that bears his name. Its account identifies Craig as an enslaver who relied on enslaved people to run both his distilling and wider business operations. The brand says it is researching their names and roles with the University of Kentucky’s Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies and the Central Kentucky Slavery Initiative.[9]
That acknowledgement places enslaved workers within the operation itself, rather than treating slavery as unrelated background to a founder’s story.[9]
Two further stories remain legends in the supplied record. NMAAHC reports a quotation praising Green as a whiskey maker and attributes it to Call, but no primary document for that quotation was consulted.[3] Veach reports a newspaper advertisement describing a runaway from the Hermitage as a talented distiller. The advertisement, its date and the person’s name were not verified directly.[7]
The history also extends beyond emancipation. Veach writes that Black workers were mostly confined to menial jobs until wartime labour shortages opened access to better positions.[7]
One later example is Frenchie Robinson, whom Veach identifies as a Black woman responsible for barrel inventory and warehouse assignments at United Distillers in the 1990s.[7] Her responsibilities bring warehousing into the picture, broadening the history beyond work at the still.
Reading these histories without replacing one myth with another
The simplest mistake is to give a proprietor all the credit for a whiskey’s making. Green’s documented teaching role shows why ownership and technical knowledge deserve separate attention.[3][4] The name associated with a business does not, by itself, identify everyone whose skill shaped its production.
A second mistake is to call later recognition a discovery. The 1967 publication of Green’s story and the company’s recognition in 2016 mark different events. A third is to assume that missing names mean missing records. Washington’s list names distillers; the Filson ledger records enslaved labour without identifying the people involved.[1][3][4][7] Both forms of evidence belong in the account.
Kevin Bradley’s 2023 University of Louisville history thesis examines enslaved and free Black contributions to bourbon and proposes changes to distillery tour narratives.[8] Its subject points to a clear practical task: integrate workers’ contributions into accounts of production, rather than confining them to a separate aside.
For the wider setting, the history of bourbon and Kentucky whiskey follows the industry around these workers. American whiskey during Prohibition takes the chronology forward into another period, with a different set of records and questions.
Sources
[1] U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH. On the Plantation, transcription of Washington’s 1799 list of enslaved people. Undated web edition. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/georgewashington/popup5.html
[2] George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. Ten Facts About the Distillery and Making George Washington Bourbon, December 2018. https://www.mountvernon.org/the-estate-gardens/distillery/ten-facts-about-the-distillery and https://edit.mountvernon.org/blog/2018/12/making-george-washington-bourbon
[3] Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Searchable Museum. The Man Behind Tennessee Whiskey: Distilling the Truth. Undated web edition. https://www.searchablemuseum.com/the-man-behind-tennessee-whiskey-distilling-the-truth
[4] Doug Frost and David Wondrich. “Jack Daniel’s”, in The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, edited by David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum, Oxford University Press, 2021. Online edition via Spirits & Distilling. https://www.spiritsanddistilling.com/dictionary/acref-9780199311132-e-141
[7] Michael R. Veach. African Americans and the Bourbon Industry. 19 February 2018. https://bourbonveach.com/2018/02/19/african-americans-and-the-bourbon-industry/
[8] Kevin Bradley. Forgotten spirits: Enslaved and free black contributions to bourbon and reshaping public memory. MA thesis, History, University of Louisville, May 2023. https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd/4702
[9] Elijah Craig, Heaven Hill. Our History. Undated web edition, producer’s account. https://elijahcraig.com/our-history
[10] Middle Tennessee State University, MTSU News. Uncle Nearest master blender. 30 July 2021. https://mtsunews.com/2021/07/30/uncle-nearest-master-blender/
This desk-researched article follows the supplied verified fact sheet, distinguishing documentary records, historical scholarship, institutional accounts and the producer’s own statements.
Last checked: November 2026