Nancy Green, the ‘Real Aunt Jemima’ Nancy Green, born on March 4, 1834, was an American former slave, Born on a slave plantation in Montgomery County, Kentucky and one of the first African-American models hired to promote a corporate trademark. The Aunt Jemima recipe was not her recipe, but she became the advertising world's first living trademark. After the Civil War, Green moved to a deeply divided Chicago, where in 1890, at 59-years-old, she was a servant for a Chicago judge. She had a lively per...
Nancy Green, the ‘Real Aunt Jemima’ Nancy Green, born on March 4, 1834, was an American former slave, Born on a slave plantation in Montgomery County, Kentucky and one of the first African-American models hired to promote a corporate trademark. The Aunt Jemima recipe was not her recipe, but she became the advertising world's first living trademark. After the Civil War, Green moved to a deeply divided Chicago, where in 1890, at 59-years-old, she was a servant for a Chicago judge. She had a lively personality and was a talented cook too, so she fit the bill and was hired by the R.T. Davis Milling Company, which was looking to employ a Black woman as a Mammy archetype to promote their new pancake mix. In 1893, she was introduced as Aunt Jemima at the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in the guise of a plantation slave, where it was her job to operate a pancake-cooking display. Green established such a successful showing of the new product, that she received a medal and certificate from the Expo officials. Although she played a character, Green was a notable woman in her own right. She was both a minister & philanthropist, as well as one of the first Black missionary workers. Green also served as one of the founding members of Olivet Baptist Church, the oldest active Black Baptist church in Chicago. This church was noted for its work to shield those who had escaped slavery, who arrived here in Chicago because there were many slave catchers in Chicago still pursuing people who were of African descent. Green also used her stature as a spokesperson to become a leading advocate against poverty and in favor of equal rights for individuals in Chicago. The irony, of course, is that although Green was perpetuating a derogatory caricature of Black women, on one hand, that career allowed her the financial freedom and mobility to become an activist and engage in those antipoverty programs. Green was able to enjoy a kind of social and economic potency unavailable to Black women of her time. And that mobility in so many ways defied the stasis of that problematic racial stereotype. Please listen in to find out more about this pioneering and brave Sheela. https://sheelanagigpodcast.com
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