So who taught a young Jack Daniel how to distill what would become the world’s best-selling whiskey?
Nathan "Nearest" Green, an enslaved Black master distiller, taught distilling techniques to Jack Daniel, founder of the Jack Daniel Tennessee whiskey.
—Uncle Nearest, as he was fondly called by family and friends grew up in Lynchburg, Tennessee, and began working on the farm of a country preacher and distiller in Lincoln County around the mid-1800s. It was there that he learned the skill of distilling and specialized in a process of distillation known as sugar maple charcoal filtering which was also called the Lincoln County Process.
Nearest was such a skilled distiller in the process he specialized in but he kept working with the preacher in the Lincoln County and fortunately it was there that Jack Daniels met him.
In the mid-1850s, Jack Daniels who was just a young white boy from a large family and who also lost his mother to a sudden illness at the age of four months began working as a chore boy for the preacher whom Uncle Nearest worked for.
It is said that Jack Daniels was a curious young boy who kept asking about the smoke coming up through the hollow on the 338-acre property and why men kept hurrying back and forth from that area which he was never allowed to go with mules and wagons.
He never stopped asking, until the preacher whim he worked for decided to give in to his curiosity took him to the area on the property where the smoke came from.
As later described in the boy’s biography, it is said that the preacher introduced the young boy to a “coal-black negro” which was uncle Nearest.
He introduced Uncle Nearest by saying “This is Uncle Nearest. He’s the best whiskey maker I know of”. The preacher went further to ask Nearest to teach the young (Jack Daniels) everything he knew about distilling and also the process of sugar maple charcoal filtering. A request Nearest obliged and taught the young boy the special filtration process of the Tennessee whiskey.
🖊️As the only admin behind this page, I try to research to educate. If you appreciate this effort, you can support to help the page thrive on https://t.co/vf5SMSPu4z Your support is deeply appreciated! Or just follow the page for articles.
"GET YOUR SWAG ON FUNK FANS." Hey Everyone, The moment you've been waiting to get your Funky Merch Galore Right here at The Funk Center Store. You can go to our website: Use this code for free domestic shipping, until November 17, 2023, (FREEFUNKSHIP).
https://t.co/KPScQwEMUb
Nashville was given the Nickname ‘Music City’ by England's Queen Victoria after receiving the Fisk
University Jubilee Singers in her court in 1873.
The group, made of mostly those formely enslaved, put Nashville on the musical map.
—Fisk University opened in Nashville in 1866 as the first American university to offer a liberal arts education to “young men and women irrespective of color.” Five years later the school was in dire financial straits.
George L. White, Fisk treasurer and music professor then, created a nine-member choral ensemble of students and took it on tour to earn money for the University. Every one of these students had been enslaved. The group left campus on October 6, 1871. Jubilee Day is celebrated annually on October 6 to commemorate this historic day.
The first concerts were in small towns. Surprise, curiosity, and some hostility were the early audience response to these young black singers who did not perform in the traditional “minstrel fashion.”
One early concert in Cincinnati brought in $50, which was promptly donated to victims of the notorious 1871 fire in Chicago. When they reached Columbus, the next city on tour, the students were physically and emotionally drained. Mr. White, in a gesture of hope and encouragement, named them “The Jubilee Singers,” a Biblical reference to the year of Jubilee in the Book of Leviticus, Chapter 25.
Continued perseverance and beautiful voices began to change attitudes among the predominantly white audiences. Eventually skepticism was replaced by standing ovations and critical praise in reviews. Gradually they earned enough money to cover expenses and send back to Fisk.
In 1872 they sang at the World Peace Festival in Boston and at the end of the year President Ulysses S. Grant invited them to perform at the White House.
In 1873 the group grew to eleven members and toured Europe for the first time. Funds raised that year were used to construct the school’s first permanent building, Jubilee Hall. Today Jubilee Hall, designated a National Historic Landmark by the US Department of Interior in 1975, is one of the oldest structures on campus. The beautiful Victorian Gothic building houses a floor-to-ceiling portrait of the original Jubilee Singers, commissioned by Queen Victoria during the 1873 tour as a gift from England to Fisk.
🖋️if you love our content, please consider supporting our page on https://t.co/MkzBtV9AwG (follow the ko-fi page too for weekly posts roundup)
It's Not #dandelions Forestry expert shares the No. 1 plant that homeowners need to add to their lawns: ‘My mind is blown right now’ <https://t.co/uH2qGLK8eO>
DISGUSTING! The Kentucky mass shooter’s AR-15 will be auctioned and sold to the highest bidder.
Kentucky law prevents law enforcement from destroying confiscated firearms, even when they're used in deadly crimes.
Kentucky State Police will conduct the auction and keep 20% of the sale proceeds for departmental use. The rest of the proceeds will be given to the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security.
Do Kentucky lawmakers love guns so much they can’t even bring themselves to destroy them when they are involved in deadly killings? Shameful!
BAN ASSAULT RIFLES!!
12/25/2022 10:15 PM: Drifting snow during blizzard conditions makes it difficult to precisely measure newly fallen snow. Based on the reports that have been sent in, it appears that the December 22 to 25 snow totals fell into these ranges when averaged, with some higher drifts.