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The founder of an award-winning Black-owned whiskey brand reveals how she's thriving in the mostly white male alcohol industry
businessinsider.com ^ | Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins

Posted on 02/27/2023 1:26:53 AM PST by RoosterRedux

Uncle Nearest has generated more than $100 million in sales since its launch, information Insider verified with documentation.

*snip*

The daughter [Fawn Weaver] of the Motown musician Frank Wilson, Weaver started her first business, in special events and public relations, at the age of 18. She also published two books about marriage in 2014 and 2015.

As an author, Weaver was intrigued by a 2016 New York Times story about a man named Nathan Green, or "Uncle Nearest," who was the first known African American master distiller. The story said Jack Daniel's was finally embracing Green's role as a former slave who taught the company's founder the craft.

*snip*

That year, Weaver visited the farm in Tennessee where Green made his whiskey and learned that the property had been on the market for 15 months. So she decided to buy it for an undisclosed amount.

Her four-day trip turned into a 12-month research project. She partnered with more than 20 historians and researchers to confirm more of Green's history, including that he was the first master distiller for the Jack Daniel's distillery.

"This white boy grows up learning from this African American man, and when he gets old enough to own his own business, then asks for his mentor to be his top dog," she said.

"Race didn't really play into it from all of the research that we've done at this point," she added. "It's very, very clear that this was one of the first cases we've ever seen of allyship."

As her business began with a story, so it continued. In 2017, Weaver opened the Nearest Green Distillery and launched Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, making storytelling the foundation of her brand's success.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
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1 posted on 02/27/2023 1:26:53 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: RoosterRedux
Here's a great example of how black people can demonstate that they are just as smart (if not much, much smarter) than most Americans by jumping into the fray of entrepreneurialism.

This woman saw a great story and the potential for a great product...and the rest is history.

Lesson learned: Playing the victim only leads to defeat (even if you are a victim). Looking at your life as one big opportunity (and then acting on it) can put victimhood and defeat in the rearview mirror.

America is the land of opportunity for everyone. You just have to seize the oppportunity!

2 posted on 02/27/2023 1:33:14 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: All; Libloather
Tip o' the hat to Freeper Libloather.

I saw this article when reading the one he posted (right below this thread) on Jack Daniels (Jack Daniel's barrel houses are causing an out-of-control black 'whiskey fungus' in a Tennessee community, enraged residents say)

3 posted on 02/27/2023 1:41:27 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: All
Here's more of this great story. I remember reading the original article in the NYTimes and thought it was a fascinating story.

Here's some more from Fawn Weaver (per NY Times 2017):

Fawn Weaver was on vacation in Singapore last summer when she first read about Nearest Green, the Tennessee slave who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey.

Green’s existence had long been an open secret, but in 2016 Brown-Forman, the company that owns the Jack Daniel Distillery here, made international headlines with its decision to finally embrace Green’s legacy and significantly change its tours to emphasize his role.

“It was jarring that arguably one of the most well-known brands in the world was created, in part, by a slave,” said Ms. Weaver, 40, an African-American real estate investor and author.

Determined to see the changes herself, she was soon on a plane from her home in Los Angeles to Nashville. But when she got to Lynchburg, she found no trace of Green. “I went on three tours of the distillery, and nothing, not a mention of him,” she said.

Rather than leave, Ms. Weaver dug in, determined to uncover more about Green and persuade Brown-Forman to follow through on its promise to recognize his role in creating America’s most famous whiskey. She rented a house in downtown Lynchburg, and began contacting Green’s descendants, dozens of whom still live in the area.

Special offer: Subscribe for $1 a week for the first year. Scouring archives in Tennessee, Georgia and Washington, D.C., she created a timeline of Green’s relationship with Daniel, showing how Green had not only taught the whiskey baron how to distill, but had also gone to work for him after the Civil War, becoming what Ms. Weaver believes is the first black master distiller in America. By her count, she has collected 10,000 documents and artifacts related to Daniel and Green, much of which she has agreed to donate to the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

Through that research, she also located the farm where the two men began distilling — and bought it, along with a four-acre parcel in the center of town that she intends to turn into a memorial park. She even discovered that Green’s real name was Nathan; Nearest (not Nearis, as has often been reported) was a nickname.

She is writing a book about Green, and last month introduced Uncle Nearest 1856, a whiskey produced on contract by another Tennessee distillery; she says she will apply the bulk of any profits toward her expanding list of Green-related projects.


4 posted on 02/27/2023 1:50:52 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: RoosterRedux

IOWs.. Hard work and determination can level the scale between you and the white folk... something normaly foreign to these people.


5 posted on 02/27/2023 1:51:18 AM PST by sit-rep ( )
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To: RoosterRedux
Oops. Here's the link to the NYTimes article mentioned above: When Jack Daniel’s Failed to Honor a Slave, an Author Rewrote History
6 posted on 02/27/2023 1:52:29 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: sit-rep

Right. Instead of whining and complaining and demanding reparations (that you don’t deserve), get to work.


7 posted on 02/27/2023 1:53:47 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: RoosterRedux

btt!


8 posted on 02/27/2023 1:57:31 AM PST by sit-rep ( )
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To: sit-rep

The only people who care about skin color are leftists. Most of don’t give a damn about the color of your skin, your educational background, or how you get yourself off. If you make a product or do a thing, you’re doing something right, skin color be damned.


9 posted on 02/27/2023 1:59:07 AM PST by rarestia (“A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.” -Hamilton)
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To: RoosterRedux

Finally! Some real Black History.

Good for her!

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia1.tenor.com%2Fimages%2Fe3526486a3a8919fffff190a7a51cbb8%2Ftenor.gif%3Fitemid%3D11783719&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=531567d22ecd20f2d49c0e1955906af3165a23987247cdf926391e18a029cf93&ipo=images


10 posted on 02/27/2023 2:05:35 AM PST by Adder (ALL Democrats are the enemy. NO QUARTER!!)
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To: RoosterRedux

Story could be exaggerated. Seems only blacks fought WWII and sent men into space too.


11 posted on 02/27/2023 2:05:59 AM PST by PghBaldy (12/14/12 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15/12 - 1030am - Obama team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: rarestia
that was true 20 and 30 years ago. but in this era, IMHO, blacks have become unhinged. possibly due in part from the medias rhetoric and leftist politicians looking for votes, and a judicial system that doesn't punish black crime... ...created a protected class of citizens that are not worthy of recognition and or respect.

it's gone too far to ignore skin color anymore. the fact that leaders of the black community do not haul their own into the police stations and courthouses, but rather blame whitey continuously, speaks volumes to me...

12 posted on 02/27/2023 2:12:55 AM PST by sit-rep ( )
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To: PghBaldy

And you could be a little demon whispering in our ears, “Don’t believe the good news. Life sucks and you’re doomed to failure.”


13 posted on 02/27/2023 2:13:09 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: PghBaldy

“...Seems only blacks fought WWII...”

Modern high school graduates know that the Axis Powers were defeated by the Tuskegee airmen, Navajo Indian code talkers, and the Women’s Army Corps. So see, they know it wasn’t just Blacks.


14 posted on 02/27/2023 2:15:16 AM PST by Monterrosa-24 (To the barricades !!!)
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To: sit-rep
What's going on in our country right now with this coming race war is that Marxists have identified blacks as their victims du jour (have done this since the 1960s and before).

Marxists are just like the very worst slave owners of long ago...trying to round up the runaway slaves and get them back on the plantation.

15 posted on 02/27/2023 2:17:53 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: RoosterRedux

I agree, but, to me, the story fairly drips with wokeism.

Ofvcourse, it *is* the Insider after all.


16 posted on 02/27/2023 2:18:02 AM PST by sauropod (“If they don’t believe our lies, well, that’s just conspiracy theorist stuff, there.”)
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To: sauropod
It may "drip with Wokeism" but it points away from Wokeism's main thesis regarding blacks. It points away from victimhood and toward achievement.

The Woke Movement identifies achievement (like math, science, hard work, punctuality, ambition, etc.) as "racist" and "acting white."

17 posted on 02/27/2023 2:21:27 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: All
Negative Thoughts: How to Stop Them

Negative thoughts can contribute to problems such as social anxiety, depression, stress, and low self-esteem.

18 posted on 02/27/2023 2:29:37 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: RoosterRedux

Another racist article against white people.


19 posted on 02/27/2023 2:59:37 AM PST by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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To: joma89

“You might be a racist if you see racism everywhere.”


20 posted on 02/27/2023 3:02:16 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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