Nancy Green as Aunt Jemima

Nancy Green, the first ‘Aunt Jemima’

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Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Nancy Green (1834-1923), a former slave from Mt. Sterling, KY, moved to Chicago after the Civil War, where she went on to become one of the first African American models employed by an American company to promote a product.

Green was the first person to portray the character Aunt Jemima. The concept and backstory for the character had already been carefully scripted by Charles Rutt and Chris Underwood, founders in 1889 of the Pearl Milling Company. They created America’s first ready-mixed pancake flour, and a year later registered the Aunt Jemima trademark and renamed the company the Aunt Jemima Manufacturing Company. In 1893 they sold the Aunt Jemima Manufacturing Company to the R.T. Davis Milling Company.

Nancy Green first appeared to the public that same year, presenting R.T. Davis Milling Company’s pancake mix at the Columbian Exposition (aka Chicago World’s Fair). Before trying out for the Jemima role, she had been working as a domestic for the Walker family, whose children grew up to become Chicago Circuit Judge Charles M. Walker and Dr. Samuel Walker.

Nancy Green as Aunt Jemima, by A.B. Frost. Not dated but likely c. 1890s. Courtesy Wikipedia
Nancy Green as Aunt Jemima, by A.B. Frost. Not dated but likely c. 1890s.

Her Aunt Jemima was a hit: “Her exhibition booth drew so many people that special policemen were assigned to keep the crowds moving,” says her bio on the African American Registry. “The Davis Milling Company received over 50,000 orders, and Fair officials awarded Nancy Green a medal and certificate for her showmanship.” The milling company proclaimed Green ‘The Pancake Queen,’ and signed her to a lifetime contract, which she honored until her death in 1923. Green’s ongoing presence, combined with the sophisticated marketing machine behind her, made such a lasting public impact that the company was renamed Aunt Jemima Mills Company in 1914.

Green’s employers sought to merge her personal history with that of the fictional mammy, though the two couldn’t have been more different. And it worked: The Sunday Morning Star, in its 1923 obituary for her, described how her young charges Charles & Samuel Walker “spread her fame among their boy chums, and before long ‘Aunt Jemima’s pancakes’ became a common phrase in Chicago when good things to eat were discussed. A milling concern heard of her, searched her out, obtained her recipe, and induced her to make pancakes at the World’s Fair.”

Now, perhaps the boys waxed enthusiastic about ‘Nancy Green’s pancakes,’ though THAT phrase was certainly not the common one used throughout Chicago when ‘good things to eat were discussed.’ Nancy Green never created pancakes as ‘Aunt Jemima’ when she was a domestic at the Walkers. Also, Pearl Milling Company had formulated their ready-mix pancake formula long before they ever hired Green. They didn’t need her recipe.

At the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, visitors walk along a pathway between several of the fair buildings towards a domed building.
At the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, visitors walk along a pathway between several of the fair buildings towards a domed building.

The real Green, for her part, was one of the first African American missionary workers, and an organizer of the Olivet Baptist Church, one of the largest (9,000+ members) African American churches in Chicago. She used her stature as a spokeswoman to advocate for antipoverty issues and equal rights in Chicago.

“Aunt Jemima’s success,” says Kimberly Wallace-Sanders in Mammy: a century of race, gender and Southern memory, “was predicated upon a fascinating interweaving of commerce, memory, and racial nostalgia that served as a vehicle for post-Civil War national consolidation.

“Aunt Jemima was created to celebrate state-of-the-art technology through a pancake mix; she did not celebrate the promise of post-Emancipation progress for African Americans. Aunt Jemima’s freedom was negated in this role because of the character’s persona as a plantation slave, not a free black woman employed as a domestic.

“An African American woman, pretending to be a slave, was pivotal to the trademark’s commercial achievement in 1893. Its success revolved around the fantasy of returning a black woman to a sanitized version of slavery. The Aunt Jemima character involved a regression of race relations, and her character helped usher in a prominent resurgence of the ‘happy slave’ mythology of the antebellum South.

This doll, a cut-out and sew cloth doll, is the daughter of the fictional character Aunt Jemima. "Diana Jemima" is written near the bottom of her backside. Aunt Jemima and her family, which in addition to Diana included Moses and Wade, were an advertising scheme by the R.T. Davis Mill Co. of St. Joseph Missouri. The dolls could be obtained by sending one box top from a flour package and 24 cents in stamps. Advertising with cloth dolls became very popular between 1890-1942.
This doll, a cut-out and sew cloth doll, is the daughter of the fictional character Aunt Jemima. “Diana Jemima” is written near the bottom of her backside. Aunt Jemima and her family, which in addition to Diana included Moses and Wade, were an advertising scheme by the R.T. Davis Mill Co. of St. Joseph Missouri. The dolls could be obtained by sending one box top from a flour package and 24 cents in stamps. Advertising with cloth dolls became very popular between 1890-1942.

“Nancy Green was a middle-aged woman living on the South Side of Chicago, working a cook and housekeeper for a prominent judge. After a series of auditions, she was hired to cook and serve the new pancake recipe at the World’s Fair. Part of her act was to tell stories from her own early slave life along with plantation tales about Aunt Jemima’s New Orleans childhood written for her by a white southern sales representative.

“The Aunt Jemima trademark was constructed as part of the budding concept of an American Dream for the American family. One year after the Fair, the R.T. Davis Milling Company introduced the Aunt Jemima paper doll family: five dolls that could be cut out from the pancake box. Aunt Jemima’s paper doll family was one of the most popular company premiums; collectors still prize a complete set over the individual dolls.

“This popular re-creation of an African American woman’s life stood in direct opposition to the efforts of real African American women struggling to publicly assert their citizenship. As a symbol of racial harmony, Aunt Jemima proved to be the preferred version of African American womanhood — an exaltation of ‘slaveocracy’ nostalgia.”


Sources: http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/nancy-green-original-aunt-jemima

Mammy: A Century of Race, Gender, and Southern Memory, Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, University of Michigan Press, (2009)

“Aunt Jemima”, of Pancake Fame, Dead, The Sunday Morning Star, September 9, 1923

More articles on the mammy stereotype:

B’ar in the Syrup Bar’l(Opens in a new browser tab)

Mammy Yokum, Pappy Yokum, and Fearless Fosdick(Opens in a new browser tab)

12 comments

  1. Pathetic how you twisted this story. Recall, the north opposed slavery, the Democrat Party (who founded the KKK) were FOR slavery. I personally LOVED Aunt Jemima syrup sitting on our breakfast table. THIS IS A TOTAL SUCCESS STORY; SHE CAME FROM SLAVERY AND MADE IT, DID MISSIONARY WORK, PUSHED FOR EQUAL RIGHTS AND IN THE END SHE WAS A MILLIONAIRE. I will quit buying from this newest brand over their ridiculous stance.

    Nancy Green, to me is a wonderful story – she beat back the slavery of the Democrat party to become successful on her own.

  2. Sybil B.

    The quoted article starting with, “Aunt Jemima’s success…” is not truth…it is someone’s opinion based on that person’s own issues.

    Nancy Green was a slave. She worked as a housekeeper/maid and helped with the children. She won an audition and took that opportunity and did very well in that capacity. She served her church and the community to help the poor to move up and take their place in society.

    Did she do something wrong? No. Did she work to help people to rise up? Yes.

    The author of the article above should have stopped with her own work. She possibly did, and an editor wanted to fan a flame of discord where there wasn’t one.

    Sad, yes, but NOT in the way the woman lived her life. In the way this site and the author decided to play the game of race bait.

  3. I’m 68 years old and just found out today that Aunt Jemima’s original picture was actually a real individual named Nancy Green. In all those 68 years, I never thought of the character “Aunt Jemima” as a slave. Not all people are brought up as racists. It’s a shame people just see the word SLAVERY when looking at her picture and not know of the great accomplishments made by the woman behind the image. I just wish something existed that had a record of HER words and how SHE felt about her portrayal of the product she promoted.

  4. Linda Athens. She was not a millionaire. Stop making up stories to make you feel better about the racist origins of Aunt Jemima.

  5. I have always been uncomfortable looking at the Aunt Jemima (and Uncle Ben’s) products and very rarely bought any. They seemed belittling, one dimensional, White nostalgic stereotyping. Thank you for the story and putting it into words.

  6. Imagine being triggered over an image of a fake character. Nobody looks at the image and thinks slavery, except black people. So once again, blacks are tearing down other blacks. Who eats fructose corn syrup anyways. Get real maple syrup for the table.

  7. Pingback: Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix and Syrup Is Being Replaced by Pearl Milling Company as the Face of the Brand : Scriberr News
  8. If ever there was a movie about her life I would love to play here in the movie.

  9. First part of the article, the factual part, was very interesting. Clever marketing to make the technical break through have the image of a traditional food instead of something from a science lab. The character was also good -a caring, maternal woman. Then, there is the opportunity for a black woman to be a spokes model and brand label for simple capitalistic reasons.

    Ironically, busy bodies decided to attack what was not only the leading pancake brand in America (by a factor of 4) but also the most popular brand among black people. Statistics show it was more popular among black people than white people.

    Then we get the over-the-top speculative part of the article making unsupported claims and rationalizations.

    The company now has a sexist, racist program aimed exclusively at black women and girls. Sad.

    I just bought some “Cousin T’s” pancake mix with the smiling black man in chefs hat on the box. (Available online.) I hope Cousin T’s picks up all the money these morons left on the table.

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