FIVE THINGS ABOUT A SLAVE BEHIND A FABLED RECIPE

1 WHITEWASHING

The makers of Jack Daniel’s, America’s favourite whiskey, have admitted for the first time that a Tennessee slave was behind its fabled recipe. For 150 years, credit for teaching the young Jack Daniel how to distil had gone to Dan Call, a Lutheran preacher in Lynchburg, Tenn. But the company has now said that it was a slave who provided the expertise.

2 EAGER PROTEGE

As a boy, Jasper Newton (Jack) Daniel, was sent to work for Call, who, as well as being a minister, ran a general store and distillery. In the mid19th century, distilleries were owned by white businessmen but much of the work involved in making whiskey was done by slaves.

3 SLAVE LABOUR

Many slaves relied on techniques brought from Africa and became experts, often making it clandestinely themselves. In 1805, Andrew Jackson, the future U.S. president, offered a bounty for a slave who had run away, describing him as a “good distiller.”

4 REVELATION

The key role of Nearis Green in advising Daniel had been suspected before but, like that of many slaves, his contribution to the development of U.S. whiskey was never recorded. The company denied there had been any attempt to hide his role in creating a whiskey that now sells more than 10 million cases a year.

5 ANNIVERSARY

Phil Epps, the global brand director for Jack Daniel’s, told the New York Times that research associated with the brand’s anniversary had shown there was substance to the claim. “We realized it was something that we could be proud of,” he said.