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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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Southeast
Timeline tracks diplomat’s path from college overachiever to alleged highway ‘road rage’ mass stabber
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The diplomat accused of fatally stabbing one person and injuring three others in a Sunday highway “road rage incident” once graduated with academic honors and built a career that took him to the U.S. State Department.
Jared Llamado, 32, fatally stabbed Michele Adams, 39, and injured Dana Bonnell, 36, Mary C. Flood, 37, and Heather Miller, 40, according to Virginia State Police. Llamado also stabbed his own dog to death, authorities said. The incident happened on I-495 southbound at 1:17 p.m. in Fairfax County, about 30 minutes from Washington, D.C.
Officials said the stabbings did not appear to be targeted, and none of the victims besides the dog were in Llamado’s car at the time. Llamado, who was armed with a knife, was shot by a state trooper in self-defense and died at a local hospital, authorities said. The trooper wasn’t injured.
“A Virginia State Police trooper was called to the scene at approximately 1:17 p.m. for a reported road rage incident. When the trooper arrived on scene, he was confronted by a male suspect carrying a knife,” Virginia State Police wrote in a news release. “The trooper then shot the suspect in self-defense. The suspect, Jared Llamado, 32, of McLean, Va., was transported to the hospital with serious injuries. Llamado later succumbed to those injuries. The trooper was not injured.”
Officials said Jared Llamado also killed his dog. (Facebook/Jared Llamado)
Police respond to a stabbing on I-495 at Little River Turnpike on March 1, 2026. (WTTG)
The U.S. Department of State confirmed Llamado was a foreign service officer with the agency.
“We are aware of the tragic incident that involved a Foreign Service Officer and occurred on Sunday, March 1, in Fairfax County, Virginia,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. “We extend our deepest condolences to all those affected by this tragedy.”
On Feb. 22, Llamado posted a picture with several friends on social media, appearing to be happy and upbeat.
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Jared Llamado was a foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department, according to an agency spokesperson. (Facebook/Jared Llamado)
“Dinner with my long time friends and coworkers!” Llamado wrote, in what would be his last Facebook post.
Here’s a timeline of Llamado’s work and education history leading up to the stabbing incident, according to his LinkedIn and social media:
2011 – Began studying at George Mason University:
In 2011, Llamado began studying at George Mason University to earn a degree in applied information technology.
2015 – Graduated from George Mason University:
In 2015, Llamado graduated from George Mason University with a degree in applied information technology. Llamado said on LinkedIn that he graduated with a 3.76 grade point average, which landed him on the dean’s list for seven of his eight semesters. He also said he graduated magna cum laude.
July 2015 to June 2018 – Employed as a network engineer at OSIbeyond
Officials said Jared Llamado killed one person and injured three others. (Instagram/jared.llamado)
June 2018 to June 2020 – Employed as an IT Network Engineer at ECC IT Solutions, LLC
June 2020 to October 2021 – Employed as a senior solutions engineer at R3 LLC
November 2021 to July 2024 – Employed as a senior network engineer at LMS Technical Services
September 2024 to March 2026 – Employed as a diplomatic technology officer at the U.S. Department of State:
While working at the Department of State, Llamado said he was living in Copenhagen, Denmark, but appeared to be back in the United States recently.
March 1: Police say Llamado went on a stabbing spree in a “road rage incident”:
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Authorities identified Jared Llamado, 32, of McLean, as the suspect in a stabbing following a crash on Interstate 495 in Fairfax County, Virginia. (Jared Llamado McLean Facebook)
According to dispatch audio obtained by Fox News Digital, the stabbing incident “started out as a property damage crash,” then the suspect began “stabbing people with a knife.”
The dispatch operator said that there were “multiple victims in the roadway.”
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Southeast
Ex-mayor convicted after son walks in on lewd act at alcohol-infused pool bash
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A former Louisiana mayor has been found guilty of having sex with a minor after prosecutors revealed her teenage son caught her in the act with his friend at a 2024 alcohol-infused pool party hosted at her home.
Misty Roberts, 43, the former mayor of DeRidder, was convicted of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and indecent behavior with a juvenile on Tuesday, according to KPLC.
Roberts was subsequently released on a $100,000 surety bond, the outlet reported.
The verdict followed days of testimony from Roberts’ family members, teenagers at the parties and the victim himself as prosecutors worked to paint a picture of the booze-filled events leading up to the incident.
Prosecutors charged that Misty Roberts had sex with her son’s 16-year-old friend at a booze-filled house party in 2024. (Misty Roberts/Facebook)
On Tuesday, the victim took the stand to tell the jury he was drunk when he and Roberts – who was serving as mayor at the time – had sex, according to KPLC.
In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Charles Robinson began by saying, “I told ya’ll at the beginning of the trial that ‘a lewd and lascivious photo is worth a thousand words.’ Here, you have it,” the outlet reported.
Robinson then pointed to a series of evidence exhibits showing Roberts posing with the victim while obscured by furniture, including photos from the night of the incident in which Roberts is seen wearing a bikini as the teen smiles up at her.
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Misty Roberts, the former mayor of DeRidder, has been found guilty of having sex with a minor. (Louisiana Highway Patrol)
However, defense attorney Adam Johnson reportedly attempted to convince the jury that key parts of the case were not properly investigated by police, including potential DNA evidence, witness testimony and video surveillance from Roberts’ home.
Johnson alleged the investigation was an attempt to “railroad” Roberts by lead investigator Melissa Welch, who previously testified she told the victim’s mother that witnesses need to “get on board or get run over by the train.”
Earlier in the trial, jurors were shown text messages between Roberts and her teenage son, with the pair discussing what type of alcohol the teens wanted for the party hosted at her home.
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Misty Roberts was serving as mayor of DeRidder at the time of the 2024 pool party, according to KPLC.
In another exchange, Roberts’ son warned her of the victim’s age, texting her, “He is seventeen,” according to the outlet. The victim was 16 years old at the time of the alleged incident.
Additional text messages from the night of the party show Roberts’ son calling the situation “crazy” and telling her that his younger sister was emotional.
Upon taking the stand, Roberts’ daughter told the court that she witnessed her mother and the victim “on top of each other” the night of the party, KPLC reported.
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Additionally, prosecutors revealed the victim’s mother texted Roberts to confirm she was not pregnant, with Roberts assuring her she was on birth control.
Roberts then screenshotted the exchange and sent the messages in a separate group chat, suggesting she would take the emergency contraceptive “Plan B,” the outlet reported.
A DoorDash driver also previously took the stand to testify that he fulfilled an order from “Misty C” to purchase the emergency contraceptive and leave it at the front door of the home.
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The driver then reportedly heard rumors of the incident and told jurors he believed his delivery was connected.
Over the weekend, Roberts’ ex-husband, Duncan Clanton, testified that Roberts admitted to having sex with the teenage boy and revealed that the couple’s children had caught them in the act, the outlet reported.
Text messages between the married couple showed Clanton telling Roberts, “I would deny what happened if you’re approached by anyone at the meeting,” on the day of a city council meeting.
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In another exchange, Clanton reportedly testified Roberts texted him, “I need you to deny it, please.”
Clanton added that while he refused to deny the allegations, he avoided talking about the incident.
“I can’t keep hurting others, friends and family. Lord knows I’ve done enough,” Roberts reportedly texted Clanton, KPLC reported.
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Roberts resigned from her position as mayor just days before her arrest in 2024.
Carnal knowledge reportedly carries a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison, with indecent behavior carrying a sentence of up to seven years. She will also be required to register as a Tier 1 sex offender, according to KPLC.
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Her sentencing is scheduled for April 17.
Roberts’ attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Trump, BBC agree on mediator for $10 billion lawsuit over Jan 6 documentary editing controversy
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President Donald Trump and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) agreed on a mediator on Tuesday to help resolve the president’s $10 billion lawsuit.
The BBC has come under intense scrutiny over a 2024 Panorama documentary about Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech delivered before the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Critics called the documentary misleading because it omitted Trump’s call for supporters to protest peacefully. Trump sued the BBC in December for both defamation and for a violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act for $5 billion apiece, seeking $10 billion total.
While ABC and CBS have both settled lawsuits with Trump in the past year, the BBC has vowed to fight the case. The two sides agreed on John W. Thornton, Esq., to serve as a pretrial mediator, who will seek a resolution.
President Donald Trump and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) agreed on a mediator on Tuesday to help resolve the president’s $10 billion lawsuit. (Patrick van Katwijk/Getty Images)
“The BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the Presidential election. President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told Fox News Digital.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s suit, filed in the Southern District of Florida Federal Court, was filed in a personal capacity and named the BBC and BBC Studios Productions as defendants. The parties have proposed a mediation session the week of Oct. 26. Mediation, a standard case management step required by the court, is contingent on the outcome of a jurisdictional challenge the BBC is expected to submit later this month.
“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” a BBC spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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President Donald Trump has tangled in the courts with several media organizations. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
The BBC previously issued an apology for the erroneous edit and said it had pulled the program from its platforms, but a spokesperson for the broadcaster added, “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”
The controversy began with a bombshell report from The Telegraph that featured excerpts from a whistleblower dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, a communications advisor hired by the BBC to review its editorial standards.
The whistleblower revealed that the BBC “Panorama” documentary released in 2024 had a misleading edit of comments Trump made at the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The documentary omitted Trump urging his supporters to protest “peacefully” and instead spliced two separate comments made nearly an hour apart, making it appear he was calling for violence.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And I’ll be there with you. And we fight — we fight like hell,” the documentary showed Trump saying, with no indication the statements came far apart.
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In reality, Trump said, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.” It was 54 minutes later that Trump called on his supporters to “fight like hell” for election integrity.
The New York Times referred to the ordeal as “one of the worst crises in its 103-year history” of the BBC. The blunder led to the resignations of BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and BBC director-general Tim Davie.
Turness insisted in an interview last week that the BBC does not have any institutional bias against Trump.
Trump’s legal team suggested the defendants “timed the publication of the Panorama Documentary to be close in time to the 2024 Presidential Election” and the value of the president’s “personal brand alone is reasonably estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars.”
Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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