We're the most awarded of 2019, 2020, 2021-three years in a row. Weaver: Yes! We are the most awarded bourbon and American whiskey. And I think that is rooted in storytelling and the overarching brand story. It seems like there is a lasting impact in the public eye. Since you started around five years ago, Uncle Nearest has become the fastest-growing American Whiskey brand. We know how to do this right because these Jack and Uncle Nearest did it right.įluker: Let's go over the business receipts. There was this level of hope in this story that said, we as Americans, Black and white, know how to fix this. People were as drawn to the story as I was for the same reason. To this day, I have counted that I had 20 archivists, archeologists, genealogists, historians that all worked alongside me. Weaver: The crazy part is I didn't recruit anyone. It seems like you recruited quite a slew of people. In my entire 40 years of living, our country had never been that racially divided.įluker: Let's talk about the research process of learning more about Uncle Nearest. In 2016, I was a couple of months away from turning 40. I also did not want to deal with a failed investment. I didn't want to deal with grieving my niece's death. Weaver: Well, I think you had two things going on. The book very quickly became an escape and where the story began.įluker: What possessed you to explore this story further? I pull out the book, and I start reading it. I went into my office and saw the Jack Daniel's Legacy book on my desk. After journeying back to Los Angeles and planning her funeral, I got back to work. The last thing I'm thinking about is Jack and the Black man sitting next to him after this point. So, you go from this experience in Singapore, reading this story, this headline, becoming inspired but then losing my niece/daughter. During the Singapore trip, I learned that my niece, Britney, who I helped raise, got into a bad motorcycle accident. Because I was in Singapore trying not to think about the money I was about to lose in this investment, I had days while my husband was in meetings to do nothing but sleuth the internet.Ī Wikipedia page popped up later in the day, and it referenced a book called Jack Daniel's Legacy. Many people took the title, "Jack Daniels embraces hidden ingredients, help from a slave." Then everybody began writing stories that had nothing to do with the original story. The story started circulating on the internet very quickly. It was clear Jack Daniels didn't want anyone to forget who the Black man in the photo was. Because everyone looked at the image and began to immediately assume that Jack Daniel enslaved a person, that he'd stolen the recipe, that he'd hidden the enslaved person or that he didn't give him credit. So, the question was, who's the Black man? He ceded the center position of the image to the black man. More importantly, if you look at the photo overall, Jack is the off-center one. I'm looking at this photo and going, "This isn't just a black man to the right of Jack Daniel." It's the 19th century that in and of itself was already strange. That was how we came to know the story, was a headline that said, "Jack Daniels embraces a secret ingredient, help from a slave."īut the photo with the Black men next to him, people hadn't seen before. The photo showed Jack Daniels surrounded by his entire team, who was all white, but in the center was a Black man, George Green, son of Nearest Green. Weaver: I was in Singapore on my husband's business trip when I first saw Uncle Nearest on the cover of the New York Times International Edition. Fluker: Let's reflect on June 2016 where were you when you first heard distiller Nathan Nearest Green's story? What made you trek to Tennessee to interview his descendants, to uncover a story, and to reveal that he was close and had an extremely tight connection with Jack Daniels?
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