The story of Nearest Green is a history lesson that stimulates the imagination. The fact that a Black man, a former slave, was the distilling genius behind the success of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, one of the world’s major liquor brands, is intriguing. 

In recent years, Nearest Green has finally gotten the recognition he deserves. This first Black master distiller is inspiration for a billion-dollar brand, Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, and for a best-selling book too.

It all started in the 1850s when Nathan “Nearest” Green became known for his skills in distilling whiskey, which was a popular enterprise for farmers throughout Tennessee and Kentucky due to a surplus in grain crops. 

While a slave, Green was rented out by his owners to various Lynchburg, Tennessee-area farmers. One of them was a wealthy landowner and preacher named Dan Call, who also had among his employees a “chore boy” teen named Jack Daniel. Among Daniel’s jobs was to help make whiskey. 

As the story goes, Green became a mentor to Jack Daniel and taught him how to make some of the best whiskey in the state. After the Civil War, Green started working with Daniel at his fledgling whiskey business. With Green’s expertise in the sugar-maple charcoal-filtering process, his whiskey had what has been described as a unique smoothness. The charcoal mellowing process is said to be what separated Tennessee whiskey from other types.  

Over the decades, the Jack Daniel’s brand became world renowned, but little was known or said about Nearest Green for at least 150 years. He was not mentioned as part of the history of Jack Daniel’s until 2016, when Brown-Forman, the company that owns Jack Daniel’s, finally acknowledged Nearest Green’s contribution and history.

Writer and entrepreneur Fawn Weaver read about Nearest Green’s impact on Jack Daniel’s in 2016. She then visited Jack Daniel’s Distillery, set up shop in Lynchburg, and began to research the two men and their relationship. Weaver collected more than 10,000 artifacts and documents related to Green and Daniel. She also interviewed many people from the area, including  descendants from the seven generations of Nearest Green’s family who had worked – and continue to work – at the Jack Daniel’s Distillery. 

Most notably, in 2017, Weaver launched the Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey brand, which has become a favorite of whiskey lovers of all generations. The Uncle Nearest brand has surpassed $1.1 billion in valuation, tripling sales from 2021 to 2024. It is considered the fastest-growing American whiskey brand in U.S. history, according to Forbes, and quickly became available in all 50 states and a dozen other countries. Uncle Nearest also has garnered more than 1,000 awards and accolades from the industry. 

Soon after Weaver launched the brand, she asked Nearest Green’s great-great granddaughter, Victoria Butler, to join the team. Butler had retired from a 31-year career as an analytical manager with the Regional Organized Crime Information Center in Nashville. After successfully leading the launch of a product, Butler was appointed master blender in 2019 and went on to fortify her expertise by becoming a certified Executive Bourbon Steward. 

Butler is also director of the Nearest Green Foundation, a nonprofit committed to providing college scholarships to Nearest Green’s descendants. “Nearest had no education,” Butler points out. “The foundation ensures that Nearest Green’s children [descendants] will live on through education.”

After successfully launching the Uncle Nearest brand and becoming a multimillionaire, Fawn Weaver found time to finish the book that was her original Nearest Green mission. In 2024, she released “Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest.”

Weaver also purchased 400-plus acres of land and in 2021 broke ground on the Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee, 14 miles up the highway from the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg. The Uncle Nearest facility is now one of the most visited distilleries in the world. Tours and tastings at the Nearest Green Distillery include details of the history and future of Tennessee whiskey. 

That is most appropriate, especially because the story of Nearest Green is a nearly forgotten history lesson that has evolved into an enterprise that opens the door for so many of Green’s descendants and inspires the public.

As Uncle Nearest’s great-great granddaughter Victoria Butler emphasizes: “Legacy is a real thing, and my family’s story is not the only one,” she said. “There is power in knowing your history, and power in sharing it with others.”