Taking the Initiative: Uncovering the Truth for Myself
Traveling to Uncle Nearest Distillery gave me the context I needed to fully appreciate the legacy of Nearest Green. While the act of close reading is an integral step in understanding the importance of Nearest’s story, being in the space provides a background and depth that the book cannot achieve on its own. While Fawn Weaver’s Love & Whiskey is masterful in its storytelling, making the reader feel immersed in the historical world of Nearest’s story, it fails to do justice to the land itself. Traveling to Tennessee from Atlanta was entering a different world. Things were much quieter, less industrial, and more intimate than what we’re used to in the city. It felt as though the land had a story to tell of the labor and care that went into Uncle Nearest’s method of distillery. By being present in the space I could more accurately visualize the process, which only made me appreciate his work even more. I could hear the patience and mentorship that Nearest had for Jack Daniel, and it made everything I’d learned of Uncle Nearest’s story flow together as a cohesive timeline rather than a series of events. What I’m trying to say is that visiting the distillery added a third dimension to my own understanding of Love & Whiskey. Instead of learning about a forgotten legend in the whiskey world, I was seeing firsthand the legacy of a master distiller whose distilling technique has been praised for its innovative nature and award-winning results.
Nearest Green’s added step of filtering whiskey through sugar-maple charcoal is now the defining characteristic of Tennessee whiskey. It’s actually this technique that led to the wild success of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey. Nearest’s mentorship of celebrated master distiller Jack Daniel was only the beginning of a long lasting partnership. While their relationship is refreshing in the context of a white supremacist society that actively worked against their dynamic, it’s still painful to know that Jack Daniel has historically been the only one credited for the creation of this whiskey. I don’t say all of this to discredit the efforts of the Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey company to pay homage to Nearest Green, but I do think it’s important to acknowledge the fact that we as a society have done a great disservice by not honoring his legacy sooner. We know now that Jack Daniel himself was incredibly close with Nearest, so much so that even their families have stayed in contact generations later. If this is the case, why be so deliberate in removing Nearest Green from the historical record of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey company? I understand that Jack Daniel isn’t necessarily at fault for this erasure of history, but I don’t understand how his company could deviate so far from his values as to rewrite the existing narrative. One could argue that this was done to protect Nearest and his family, acknowledging that they wouldn’t have been accepted amongst a white consumer population as newly freed Black people, but I doubt this was the case. It would have been possible to recognize Nearest and his contributions with the use of heavy discretion. If nothing else, transparency is expected of any entrepreneur who’s growing their business. The lack of complete honesty is disheartening, and leads me to question what I’ve come to perceive as the truth behind Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey.
The immersive nature of our retreat inspired me to be more persistent in seeking out all aspects of truth within the history I’ve been taught. Oftentimes, the history we’re told is a reconstructed version of a singular perspective. This is a problematic practice, as truth has multiple dimensions that require the experience and perspectives of all those involved, not just the powerful. It’s by taking the initiative to do your own thinking that you begin to understand the world around you for everything it has to offer. Similarly to Fawn Weaver, I hope to pursue my own version of truth that resists the single-story model. Through close reading of informational sources and critical thinking that extends beyond the text, I hope to develop the discernment required to uncover the stories that go untold.
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