Nancy Green  (March 4, 1834 – August 30, 1923 [1] [2] ) was a storyteller, cook, activist, and the first of several  African-American  models hired to promote a corporate trademark as " Aunt Jemima ". [3] Biography Green was born into  slavery  on March 4, 1834, near  Mount Sterling  in  Montgomery County, Kentucky . [4]  She was hired in 1890 [5]  by the R.T. Davis Milling Company in  St. Joseph, Missouri , to represent "Aunt Jemima", an advertising character named after a song from a  minstrel show . [3]  Davis Milling had recently acquired the formula to a ready-mixed, self-rising pancake flour from  St. Joseph Gazette  editor  Chris L. Rutt  and Charles Underwood and were looking to employ an African-American woman as a  Mammy archetype  to promote their new product. [6]  In 1893 Green was introduced as Aunt Jemima at the  World's Columbian Exposition  held in...