Nancy Green
The Person Behind “Aunt Jemima”
1834 – 1923

When I was in elementary school in a small Ohio town in the late 1950s we had some visitors arrive to address my sixth grade class. There were several men and they were accompanied by a young Black woman dressed in a skirt and bandana. One of the visitors then indicated the woman and announced: “Kids, I bet you know who this is!” And we did—or we knew who she was supposed to be.

We all knew about how a local men’s organization was soon to hold a Pancake Breakfast to raise money for their charities and the young woman was Aunt Jemima—representing the company that manufactured the pancake mix. And also a well known trademark for many years.

Of course the lady we met was really an actress/model and actually one of many women who until recently portrayed the character. However, it all began with the first “Aunt Jemima”—who portrayed the character as the jolly, friendly “Mammy” type she was imagined to be. And in doing so she became what one source called the first living trademark of the advertising world.

The first “Aunt Jemima” representative was born enslaved as Nancy Hayes or Hughes possibly in March, 1834 in Kentucky—of course since at the time slaves had no birth certificates or last names—we can’t be sure. Later Nancy married George Green and they had several children (the youngest born in 1862) and her family were probably farmers and raised tobacco, hay, cattle and hogs.

By the end of the Civil War, Green had lost her husband and children and she became employed as a domestic servant. She worked for a prosperous White family named Walker in Covington, Kentucky and lived in a small house behind their large home. In the early 1870s when the family moved to Chicago, she accompanied them, forming a close relationship with the Walker sons who later became a circuit judge and prominent physician.

When she was about sixty, around 1890, Nancy began appearing as “Aunt Jemima,” employed by the Missouri company that manufactured the pancake flour. The character had begun as an image inspired by the song “Old Aunt Jemima,” made popular during the 1870s by Billy Kersands, a Black comedian. Also, it was often performed in minstrel shows by White men. Then in 1889 after seeing such a performance, someone at the R.T. Mill Company of St. Louis proposed using the character image in publicity to represent their self-rising pancake flour and to find someone to personify the “Aunt Jemima” image to promote the product. Eventually a food wholesaler identified Nancy as the one they needed—at the time she was working as a cook for the Judge Walker family in Chicago.

Nancy seemed perfect for the role, to depict the image of the company image, to play the stereotypical “Mammy” character of a friendly Black domestic servant who was also a great cook.

Slavery was a cruel system based on the idea of a person owning another, but it was an American reality until 1865. At that time there developed some stereotypical images from the time of slavery and the enslaved, and one of those we are familiar with—the jolly, friendly Black woman domestic servant who lovingly tended to her White family. This type of person actually existed in many families, and over the years many of these women became very close to her employers—and worked for them for many years. This was particularly true if the family had children the worker tended as with the Walker family and Nancy.

Actually the name “Aunt Jemima” was a combination of several customs of the time. The character name for example. At the time slaves were often given names from the Bible, and Jemimah was one of Job’s daughters. Also, mature Black women were often addressed to as “aunt.” (“uncle” was used for Black men and we see this later used in advertising with Uncle Ben rice.).

One of Nancy’s first appearances as Aunt Jemima came at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where she appeared in the “world’s largest flour barrel” (24 feet high) where she prepared pancakes and served them, chatted with customers and also sang songs. Of course with Nancy she was actually just being herself.

To add to the publicity, Aunt Jemima became a sort of heroine during the Civil War. According to this story, Aunt Jemima lived in a Louisiana home of Col. Higbee, a local plantation owner. When Union soldiers arrived at the house they threatened the colonel that they would rip off his moustache. However, Aunt Jemima began to feed the Union soldiers (pancakes, what else?) which allowed the colonel to escape. The soldiers were so impressed with the pancakes that they suggested that Aunt Jemima return to the North and share her recipe.

Because she became such a popular figure, the Miller Company offered Nancy a lifetime contract to continue to play the role but she only agreed to a 20 year term. Under her new job she continued to appear at fairs, festivals, flea markets, food shows, and local groceries. One part of the promotion was putting Nancy’s picture as Aunt Jemima on advertising posters and even billboards in the towns where she appeared, and with the quote (stereotypically in Black dialect) “I’se in town, honey.”

Meanwhile as she toured, Nancy lived in Chicago with various nephews and nieces. Also, she was an active dedicated member of Chicago’s Olivet Baptist Church, a large Baptist church with over 9000 members. In addition Nancy used her national celebrity to become a spokesperson for causes that alleviated poverty and in favor of equal rights for individual Black citizens.

When the 20 year period was over, Nancy ceased appearing at Aunt Jemima, even declining in 1900 to travel to Paris for an appearance. The company then continued to employ other mature Black women to take on the role. For her part Nancy apparently resumed her domestic career. In 1910 as she was 76 years old she was listed on the census that year as a residential housekeeper.

Then in August, 1923 when she was 89 and on a city sidewalk Nancy was struck and killed by a car that was forced to the sidewalk after it collided with a laundry truck. She was buried in a pauper’s grave in a Chicago cemetery.

Her grave location remained obscure until 2015 when it was revealed after a 15 year search by Sherry Williams, founder of the Bronzeville Historical Society which preserves African-American culture in Chicago. She located the grave and arranged for a headstone to be erected in 2020. A search for descendants brought to light Marcus Hayes, a great-great-great nephew, He told an interviewer about his ancestor: “She would want the real story to be told of her and the ladies that came after her. Aunt Jemima is more than a character. She is Nancy Green and this is her recipe, and her legacy must be told.”

Williams said: “Aunt Jemima is representative of countless Black women who were and are the essential workers. Nancy Green in particular is the ideal woman to salute.”

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Anne Adams is a retired church staffer. She lives in East Texas and has an historical column for a local newspaper. She has published in Christian and secular publications for more than 40 years.

References:
Wikipedia
African American Registry
New York Times
ABC News