Who created Jack Daniel's whiskey?

Who created Jack Daniel's whiskey? This might sounds like a stupid question, since there definitely was a Jack Daniel who started distilling at the age of 8, yet if you thought he was the creator you'd be wrong.

Jack Daniels is now the top selling American Whiskey in the world.

It was actually, of all people, a slave, known as Nearis "Nearest" Green, who created it and passed his skills along to young Jack. The story has "apparently" been known all along, yet even the 150 year old company promoted the myth it was Dan Call, the owner of Nearis, who passed on to Daniel his distilling know-how.

Commercial interests

Sometimes history can be distorted deliberately by those with an agenda, and none are more powerful than money. Facing competition on the world's stage from Scotland, Ireland etc, the Tenessee based fledgling business of the mid 19th century was keen not to upset any customers, and it's an unfortunate fact of life that being seen as created by anything other than pure-white all American homeboys would have been seen as such a weakness.

Here's Jack, and it's fascinating to speculate who the guy to his right is - one of Nearis's sons perhaps?

Setting the record straight

Even today, people finding such an iconic brand was actually built on slave labor comes as a shock. Jack Daniel's - the business - is working now to put the record straight, which is something we can all raise a glass to.