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Meet the American who taught Jack Daniel to make whiskey: Nearest Green, Tennessee slave, master distiller
Nathan Nearest Green rose from the inhumanity of slavery to lift American spirits around the world.
Green lived in bondage in the years before the Civil War. He operated a farmhouse distillery for minister slave owner and grocery-store operator Dan Call in Lynchburg, Tennessee.
It was there that the middle-aged, African-American distiller taught a poor, hardworking and curious pre-teen Scots-Irish boy named Jack Daniel how to make whiskey on a barnyard still in backwoods America.
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That boy opened Jack Daniel’s Distillery in 1866. He hired Green, newly emancipated a year earlier, as the operation’s first master distiller.
“We think there was a special bond between Jack and Nearest and Jack and Nearest’s family,” Jack Daniel’s historian Nelson Eddy told Fox News Digital.
Green’s descendants have worked at the distillery since its inception — they still help produce the whiskey today, more than 150 years later, he said.
Jack Daniel (center row, white hat, black vest) founded his eponymous distillery in 1866 after learning the craft from slave Nathan Nearest Green, who became his company’s first master distiller. There are no known pictures of Nearest Green, but his son, George, is seated to Daniel’s right (center of photo). Members of the Green family have worked at Jack Daniel’s Distillery throughout its history, including two descendants of Nearest Green today. (Courtesy Jack Daniel’s Distillery)
Jack Daniel’s Tennessee sour-mash whiskey is the top-selling whiskey and most globally recognized spirit made in the United States.
The Jack Daniel’s brand is so deeply and uniquely American it should have its own marching band, fight song and football team.
“We think there was a special bond between Jack and Nearest.” — Jack Daniel’s historian Nelson Eddy
Yet the signature processes behind Jack Daniel’s, and Tennessee whiskey in general, include techniques, some experts argue, known in western Africa — where conquered tribesman, Green’s ancestors, were sold into slavery to Europeans and shipped around the world.
Yes. Jack Daniel’s, like most everything profoundly American, boasts international influences.
The old farm of Jack Daniel’s near the Jack Daniel’s whiskey distillery. Company founder Jack Daniel established his first distillery in 1866. (Kyle Dean Reinford/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Green’s story has long been known to spirits historians and shared by the Jack Daniel’s Distillery.
“It’s a story of Black and White working together — you can boil it down to something really that simple and really human,” Charles K. Cowdery, author of the book “Bourbon, Straight: The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey,” told Fox News Digital.
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But Green’s influence is gaining wider audience now, thanks in large part to Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee, which has earned critical acclaim for its products and praise for its devotion to whiskey history since opening in 2017.
“Nearest Green is definitely the godfather of Tennessee whiskey,” Fawn Weaver, founder of Nearest Green Distillery, said in a 2019 interview with FOX Business.
Whiskey maker Uncle Nearest
Nathan Nearest Green was born around 1820 in Maryland, most likely in Baltimore. Little is known about his early life.
Nelson Eddy, Jack Daniel’s company historian, speaking in the old office of company founder Daniel on the grounds of the Jack Daniel’s distillery. (Kyle Dean Reinford/picture alliance via Getty Images)
A more complete picture emerges in later years, as Green enjoyed emancipation in the wake of the Civil War.
“His friends and family called him Uncle Nearest,” according to research by Nearest Green Distillery.
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“’Uncle’ is a term that was used in Lynchburg as an indication of respect, for both Whites and Blacks at the time. Nearest was greatly respected in Lynchburg as a mentor and the best whiskey maker in the area.”
He appears to have enjoyed a full life in freedom.
The 1880 census lists Green — written down as “Nearis” Green, most likely a misspelling — as 60 years old. It shows him married to Harriet, just 40, and with a full brood of nine children.
Several of his children worked at Jack Daniel’s Distillery in its earliest days.
“Nearest was greatly respected in Lynchburg as a mentor and the best whiskey maker in the area.” — NearestGreen.com
He arrived at Dan Call’s Lynchburg farm sometime in the mid-1800s. Among other duties, he was charged with operating the farmhouse distillery.
“It was a natural job for enslaved labor,” said Cowdery, referencing that period of time in America’s history. “It’s dirty and it’s hard and it’s dangerous.”
Jack Daniel’s distiller Nathan Nearest Green was married with nine children, according to the 1880 census, which mistakenly lists him as “Nearis” Green. (Courtesy Jack Daniel’s Distillery)
Soon, Green would mentor a poor little boy in a relationship that would change the destinies of two families and shape the future of American spirits.
‘He was a worker, like Nearest’
Jasper Newton “Jack” Daniel was born into freedom. But not ease.
The details of his early life are also unknown. He was born in Lynchburg around 1848, the youngest of 10 children.
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Daniel’s mother died soon after he was born, no more than a few months later.
He was about 10 years old when he went to work for Minister Call; and he was around 15 when his father, serving in the Confederate army, died of pneumonia in 1863.
A sculpture in front of a cave, from which the water for Jack Daniel’s whiskey flows, serves as a reminder of company founder Jack Daniel. (Kyle Dean Reinford/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Jack Daniel was a teenage orphan.
“He worked as a chore boy for the preacher ─ milking cows, feeding slop to the pigs, getting water from the springhouse and all the other things farm hands do,” according to NearestGreen.com.
The allure of the distillery captured his curiosity. He began working with Green, reportedly with the blessing of landowner Call.
“He wasn’t a privileged boy. He was a worker, like Nearest.” — NearestGreen.com.
The poor White orphan boy and the enslaved middle-aged Black distiller proved a dynamic duo, by all accounts.
“He wasn’t a privileged boy. He was a worker, like Nearest,” reports NearestGreen.com.
Green gave Daniel a master class on the intricacies of a spirit made only in America: sour-mash, charred-oak barrel-aged, charcoal-filtered corn whiskey.
Tennessee whiskey, in other words.
Jack Daniel’s whiskey is filtered through sugar-maple charcoal, which the distillery makes on site. Daniel learned the technique from slave distiller Nathan Nearest Green. Charcoal filtering is a technique believed by some to originate with traditional water-purifying methods in West Africa. (Courtesy Jack Daniel’s Distillery)
The processes that make it so smooth were all known by the 19th century and in many cases improved and perfected by enslaved distillers.
Corn-based, sour-mash whiskey, aged on charred oak barrels, is common in most American whiskeys.
Tennessee whiskey is unique largely by one process: charcoal filtering. The distilled liquor is filtered through sugar-maple charcoal before it’s aged.
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“It’s believed by many whiskey and food historians to have been brought in by slaves, who were already using charcoal to filter their water and purify their foods in West Africa,” reports NearestGreen.com.
Jack Daniels is the top-selling whiskey made in America and a globally recognized U.S. brand. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Both Cowdery, the whiskey author, and Eddy, the company historian, dispute the African origins.
Regardless, Tennessee whiskey requires intricate science and craftsmanship on a level remarkable in the 1800s for what was essentially backwoods moonshining.
“I would consider Nearest a mentor for Jack … He was heavily influenced by Nearest in many ways.” — Nelson Eddy
Jack Daniel, the spirit namesake, appears to have learned it all from Nearest Green, according to distillery historian Eddy.
The two men developed a relationship deeper than just co-workers.
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“I would consider Nearest a mentor for Jack,” said Eddy. “I will tell you this, there was something more going on here. He was heavily influenced by Nearest in many ways.”
Green, known to play fiddle, reportedly fueled Daniel’s lifelong passion for music.
‘Bigger than whiskey’
Nathan Nearest Green died around 1890. His final resting place is unknown. No known picture of him exists.
But his impact is still felt around the world.
Nathan Nearest Green was an enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey before the Civil War. Newly emancipated, he became the first master distiller for Jack Daniel’s Distillery when it opened in 1866. Members of his family have worked for the distillery since its founding including, from left, Jerome Vance, Debbie Staples (recently retired) and Jackie Hardin. (Courtesy Jack Daniel’s Distillery)
Jack Daniel’s charcoal-mellowed sour-mash Tennessee whiskey is a prized symbol of excellence in American spirit-craft around the world.
Green’s impact is most notably felt in Lynchburg. His family went on to become one of the biggest landowners in the region, according to Eddy.
“There has never been drop of Jack Daniel’s made without a member of the Green family working somewhere in the company.” — Charles K. Cowdery
Two of his descendants, Jerome Vance and Jackie Hardin, still work at the distillery today.
Another, Debbie Staples, recently retired.
“There has never been a drop of Jack Daniel’s made without a member of the Green family working somewhere in the company,” said whiskey historian Cowdery.
23 Febuary 2018, USA, Lynchburg: The old office beside the Jack Daniel’s cave on the grounds of the Jack Daniel’s distillery. (Photo by Kyle Dean Reinford/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Jack Daniel’s today is owned by international wine and spirits conglomerate Brown-Forman. It manages a vast complex of global trade, distribution and marketing logistics.
“It really is a huge company,” said Cowdery. “But at the distillery in Lynchburg, it really is local people working there for years. It has a very familial feel.”
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The relationship between Green and Daniel that made Tennessee whiskey an icon appears forged by a shared human bond: the struggles of orphan and slave.
Jack Daniel’s is the top-selling American whiskey. Its namesake learned to make Tennessee whiskey from enslaved distiller Nearest Green. (Getty Images/courtesy Jack Daniel’s Distillery)
“This story is bigger than whiskey,” said Eddy.
“It’s the story of the relationship between two men, the distillery and two families.”
To read more stories in this unique “Meet the American Who…” series from Fox News Digital, click here.
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Virginia prosecutor’s record on violent offenders scrutinized after illegal immigrant charged in mom’s murder
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A prosecutor in Virginia is facing criticism after a Fairfax County Police Department officer warned the county’s commonwealth attorney about a criminal illegal immigrant who has racked up over 30 arrests before allegedly killing a mother.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a mother to death while at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Feb. 23. Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano’s office, however, was warned several times about how dangerous Jalloh is, and dismissed many of his previous criminal charges.
Jalloh’s case is far from the only controversial actions by Descano’s office, which even includes a plea deal with a murder suspect that allows him the chance at freedom.
POLICE WARNED PROSECUTORS 3 TIMES ABOUT VIOLENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT BEFORE HE ALLEGEDLY KILLED VIRGINIA MOTHER
Here’s a list of controversial cases handled by Descano’s office:
Abdul Jalloh
Abdul Jalloh, 32, is accused of killing Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop. (Fox 5 DC)
Jalloh, 32, was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a mother to death while at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Feb. 23. The victim, 41-year-old Stephanie Minter, was found dead with multiple stab wounds to her upper body, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Jalloh has a violent rapsheet dating back to 2014 and includes over 30 arrests with several charges dismissed by Descano’s office.
Jalloh was arrested the next day while he was allegedly trying to steal from a liquor store when an employee called 911. Officials said Jalloh came to the U.S. illegally in 2012 from Sierra Leone under the Obama administration.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer on Jalloh in 2020, and he was later issued a final order of removal allowing him to be deported to any country other than Sierra Leone. Despite that order, he was not deported.
A police major for the Fairfax County Police Department even warned Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano about Jalloh on at least three separate occasions, according to emails obtained by WJLA.
In one email to Fairfax County Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands, the police major said Jalloh “is one of the repeat (and violent) offenders” that they had discussed before.
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Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano speaking at an event. (Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
“I wanted to get your background on why he is out so soon and ask if his prior suspended sentence (of I believe 5 years) was pursued by your office? Unfortunately, based on MTV Station’s numerous dealings with him, it is not a question of if, but rather when he will maliciously wound (or worse) again. My role of keeping the public safe, prompts me to follow up on his status,” the major wrote.
A Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the office “was aware of Jalloh’s criminal history and shared police concerns about potential future dangerousness. That is why our Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney personally handled these cases.”
The spokesperson added that prosecutors “will often explore many different pathways to successful prosecution, but, at the end of the day, our decisions are constrained by what testimony is available and what is legally permissible and practicable in Fairfax courts.”
Joshua Danehower
In 2022, Joshua Danehower was arrested for the murder of Gret Glyer. (Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office)
In 2022, Danehower was charged with Gret Glyer’s murder. According to WUSA 9, Glyer, who owned the donation platform DonorSee, was shot 10 times as he slept next to his wife on June 24, 2022.
Prosecutors alleged Danehower killed Glyer because of an obsession with his wife. The suspect allegedly became fixated with her after a church function, and according to her family, the two had gone on a date about a decade ago.
Danehower was given a plea deal by Descano’s office, which found him not guilty by reason of insanity in February.
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Virginia law requires Danehower to be sent to a psychiatric hospital, where his status will be evaluated on an annual basis for the next five years, then every two years afterward. If he’s deemed no longer a threat to himself or others, he’d have an opportunity to be released from the psychiatric hospital.
Heather Glyer, the victim’s wife, said while on the witness stand, “I was robbed of my life partner.”
“My kids were robbed of their father,” she added.
Wilmer Osmany Ramos-Giron
Wilmer Osmany Ramos-Giron pleaded guilty to lesser charges. (DHS)
In January 2025, according to a report by former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, Ramos-Giron, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, choked his ex-wife during an argument and pulled out a knife.
He was charged with felony abduction by force, felony strangulation, and misdemeanor assault and battery against a family member after the incident, but Descano’s office allowed him to plead to lesser charges of misdemeanor battery and brandishing a bladed weapon.
In a statement released by Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Deputy Chief of Staff and Public Information Officer Laura Birnbaum, according to the report, the plea agreement “achieved the outcomes that the victim wanted.”
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However, when the victim spoke with 7News, she refuted Birnbaum’s statement, saying she didn’t agree to the plea deal.
“He’s dangerous,” she said, fearing another violent incident would happen.
“If I die, who is going to take care of them?” the victim asked, referring to her children.
Ronnie Reel
Ronnie Reel accepted a plea deal by Fairfax county prosecutors. (Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office)
In July 2021, Reel was arrested on charges of sexual penetration, forcible sodomy and aggravated sexual battery against a minor, according to the Fairfax County Times.
During Reel’s trial on Sept. 13, 2022, Chief Judge of the Fairfax County Circuit Court Penney Azcarate ruled that the Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney’s office had missed an evidentiary deadline, meaning confessions, including a call from Reel to a defendant’s mother where he allegedly confessed, as well as other evidence and witnesses couldn’t be used in court.
According to the outlet, that meant the case would rely on the victim’s testimony entirely.
As a result, Reel was offered a plea deal and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery and was sentenced to one year in prison, but was released on time served. He also wasn’t required to register as a sex offender, according to FOX 5.
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The mother, who asked to be identified as Amber, told FOX 5 the case has had a big impact on her son.
“I was really upset. This is my child, this is my baby,” she said while crying. “And he got no justice. So he continues to see me cry and everything. He held his own, he stayed strong. He’s always trying to be strong for mom.”
“He was confessing every little detail that he did, and it was making me sick to my stomach,” she added. “It was horrible. He literally confessed to me why he did it.”
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
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Immigration enforcement is a core federal power. Under Article I of the Constitution, Congress has the duty to write our federal immigration laws. Under Article II, the President has the duty to enforce them. States cannot meddle and certainly not obstruct. Unfortunately, many Democrat states, especially Virginia, are on a deadly collision course with the federal government.
American voters gave President Trump and the Republican-led Congress a broad electoral mandate to reverse the disaster the Biden-Harris border policy caused in every state in America by mass importing as many as 20 million illegal aliens, including the worst of the worst around the world.
Activist judges and other Democrat politicians and election deniers have done everything they can fathom to thwart Trump’s constitutional duty to expel these dangerous illegal aliens.
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The latest example is Virginia, which is passing a series of unconstitutional laws that would dangerously and illegally obstruct ICE. These proposals include criminal penalties, meaning that state law enforcement would attempt to arrest and jail ICE agents for simply doing their jobs.
This effort is seditious, insurrectionist, extremely dangerous and blatantly unconstitutional. For the sake of the Republic, the Justice Department must immediately and aggressively quell this Virginia seditious conspiracy.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Davis Spanberger laughs aloud during a ceremony in a Virginia court in Richmond. (Mike Kropf-Pool/Getty Images)
Fairfax County District Attorney Steve Descano is the Soros puppet Democrat prosecutor in the DC suburb, an uber-wealthy Democrat enclave that is an albatross around Virginia’s neck. Abdul Jalloh is an illegal alien who invaded our country in 2012. Jalloh settled in Virginia and began wreaking havoc on the good citizens there, racking up a whopping 30 arrests. These included one for rape and four charges for stabbing Americans.
Yet, thanks to the willful ineptitude of Fairfax County’s Democrat regime, Jalloh only had one felony conviction. He violated his probation, spent three months in jail and went free because of a deal between his lawyer and Descano’s office. Sanctuary jurisdictions like Fairfax County do not notify ICE when detaining or releasing illegals like Jalloh, who had a final order of removal from 2020.
Police in Fairfax repeatedly warned Descano’s office via email that Jalloh’s release would endanger the public, but the pleas fell on deaf ears. Earlier this week, Jalloh allegedly stabbed to death 41-year-old innocent mother Stephanie Minter at a bus stop.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger ran as a moderate Democrat. But after her inauguration this year, she immediately showed her true leftist colors. She issued an order prohibiting cooperation between state officials and ICE.
Several anti-ICE bills await Spanberger’s signature: (1) a prohibition against ICE arrests at courthouses (where these alleged dangerous criminal illegals visit daily); (2) a prohibition against ICE arrests within 40 feet of polling places (where illegals violate federal criminal laws by voting); and (3) criminal penalties for ICE agents who wear masks (because they don’t want to get doxxed and killed).
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
If Spanberger signs these unconstitutional state laws, the Trump Justice Department should immediately sue and seek to enjoin them in court. A Virginia federal judge should issue an injunction, following the lead of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which fully stayed California’s unconstitutional prohibition against ICE agents’ use of masks.
But civil enforcement is not enough. Virginia Democrat officials plotting to arrest ICE agents for doing their jobs (seditious conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 2384) — and especially those who cause the arrests (insurrection under 18 U.S.C. § 2383, assault, kidnapping, harboring, conspiracy, and more) — must go to federal prison for their serious federal felonies. If anyone gets killed in a deadly standoff between these new Virginia confederates and ICE, these Virginia Democrat officials must face felony murder charges.
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Former President Biden and his missing-in-action border czar Kamala Harris allowed millions of illegal immigrants, including the most violent and dangerous criminals in the world, to pour across our borders. Trump is doing everything in his power to fulfill his broad electoral mandate and undo the damage by arresting and deporting these illegals.
Virginia’s proposed laws do not merely prohibit communication between state officials and ICE; rather, they criminalize federal law enforcement actions that are plainly within the scope of federal immigration enforcement power.
Abdul Jalloh has racked up over 30 arrests since entering the U.S., according to officials. (DHS)
States do not have to help ICE by, for instance, providing law enforcement resources to assist in ICE apprehensions of illegals. But states certainly cannot subvert or obstruct these federal efforts. This is especially true of Virginia’s attempt to arrest ICE agents in the line of duty, which could justify their use of deadly force.
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Virginia’s attempt to subvert and obstruct federal law must fail. We fought the Civil War because the Confederacy, headquartered in Virginia, sought to nullify federal law with respect to slavery. Today’s Virginia Democrats are reverting to their confederate roots.
Just as the federal government did during the Civil War and for a century after when segregationist states continued their efforts to nullify federal law, the federal government now must stand strong against Virginia’s sedition and insurrection. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution makes plain that federal law is supreme in areas where the federal government has authority.
If Virginia gets away with effectively nullifying federal immigration enforcement, other states can nullify any other federal law that it finds distasteful. Let’s hope Abigail Spanberger comes to her senses and vetoes this insanity. If she does not, the federal government must use all tools at its disposal, including the Insurrection Act of 1807 and other federal criminal statutes, to preserve federal law.
Virginia state officials must go to federal prison for engaging in seditious conspiracy, insurrections and other very serious federal felonies. Anything less would threaten the existence of the Republic.
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South Carolina pastor describes evacuating members from Middle East after war broke out during Israel trip
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SUMMERVILLE, S.C. – Dozens of members of a South Carolina church are finally back in the United States after Operation Epic Fury left them stranded in Israel for nearly a week after their flight was supposed to depart.
Forty members of Calvary Chapel Summerville landed in Israel on Feb. 20 for eight days of exploration in the Holy Land.
The group was set to fly home on Feb. 28 and had arrived at the airport three hours before their scheduled departure when the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran. The attack prompted the closure of Israel’s airspace and the group had to evacuate the airport.
“It felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders and I just prayed and prayed and prayed and asked God to give me wisdom,” said Vic Carroll, pastor at Calvary Chapel Summerville in South Carolina.
TRAVELERS STRANDED IN DUBAI PAYING HUGE SUMS TO FLEE ON PRIVATE CHARTER FLIGHTS AMID OPERATION EPIC FURY
Members of Calvary Chapel Summerville visit Al-Khazneh in Petra. (Melanie Carroll)
Carroll said the group had to shelter-in-place in Israel, going in and out of bomb shelters for several days. He then had to face the decision of the group staying or taking a bus to Jordan to have a shot at getting a flight back to the United States.
“We ultimately, you know, made the decision between what was bad and what was worse. I thought the worst would be to stay,” the pastor said.
“We were instructed that if a siren goes off while we were on the road, the bus would pull over, we would all need to get on the ground, lay on the ground face-down for at least 10 minutes until the threat was gone, and then be on our way,” he continued.
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The members of Calvary Chapel Summerville sightseeing in the Holy Land. (Melanie Carroll)
Fortunately, that did not happen and the group made it to the airport in Jordan to hop on a flight out of the Middle East Thursday morning.
Before the flight, Carroll said it was frightening, but their faith was greater than their fear.
“We’re just having to trust that we’re making the right decision, and this is our only option to get home, so we [were] just trusting in God,” he said.
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The group returned to the U.S. on Thursday night, landing at JFK in New York.
Melanie Carroll, the pastor’s wife, texted, “We are so thankful!!!!! It’s surreal!!”
Melanie and Vic Carroll while visiting The Holy Land. (Kailey Schuyler)
The unexpected extension of the trip caused the price tag to increase significantly. Melanie created a GoFundMe, writing, “The path to get us home between lodging, flights and transfers will be upwards of $2500 per person.”
The group was able to raise their goal of $100,000 in less than three days.
Melanie said the group is continuing to pray for everyone trying to get out of the Middle East.
Nearly 24,000 Americans have returned to the U.S. after fleeing the Middle East since Operation Epic Fury began last week, according to the State Department.
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