The Real Jack Daniel's Was A Black Enslaved Man Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey is a billion-dollar global brand, but for 150 years, the company never acknowledged that an enslaved man named Nathan "Nearest" Green invented the signature process that makes it famous. Green, born into slavery in 1820, perfected sugar maple charcoal filtering—the Lincoln County Process—using techniques rooted in West African traditions. He taught 7-year-old Jack Daniel everything about whiskey distillation. After E