Nancy Green (March 4, 1834 – August 30, 1923) was an American former slave, who, as "Aunt Jemima", was 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.[1]
Biography
Nancy Hayes (or Hughes) was born enslaved in the Antebellum South on March 4, 1834.[2] Montgomery County Historical Society oral history places her birth at a farm on Somerset Creek, six miles outside Mount Sterling in Montgomery County, Kentucky. With George Green, she had at least two and as many as four children (one of whom was born in 1862). Local farmers from that area named Green raised tobacco, hay, cattle, and hogs. There were no birth certificates or marriage licenses for enslaved people.[3][4]