Cowdery, Charles K. Bourbon, Strange: Surprising Stories of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky, 2014.
African American whiskey labor and claimed erasure in an Early Times advertising image sequence.
Charles K. Cowdery, Bourbon, Strange: Surprising Stories of American Whiskey (Made and Bottled in Kentucky, 2014), Chapter 15, “Piano C. Red at Maxwell Street (with an Appearance by Old Grand-Dad Bonded Bourbon),” section “The Holy Trinity”.
Charles K. Cowdery, Bourbon, Strange: Surprising Stories of American Whiskey (Made and Bottled in Kentucky, 2014), Chapter 15, “Piano C. Red at Maxwell Street (with an Appearance by Old Grand-Dad Bonded Bourbon),” section “The Holy Trinity”.
Chapter 15, “Piano C. Red at Maxwell Street (with an Appearance by Old Grand-Dad Bonded Bourbon),” section “The Holy Trinity”
Cowdery, Bourbon, Strange, Chapter 15, “Piano C. Red at Maxwell Street (with an Appearance by Old Grand-Dad Bonded Bourbon),” section “The Holy Trinity”.
Chapter 15, “Piano C. Red at Maxwell Street (with an Appearance by Old Grand-Dad Bonded Bourbon),” section “The Holy Trinity”
September 29 fresh supplied-copy review: citation metadata and locator reconciled to the complete text and visual survey. PDF-sheet numbers are capture coordinates, not printed page numbers. Verified source fidelity does not establish historical truth.
Source and locator
Canonical source · Chapter 15, “Piano C. Red at Maxwell Street (with an Appearance by Old Grand-Dad Bonded Bourbon),” section “The Holy Trinity”
Full citation
Charles K. Cowdery, Bourbon, Strange: Surprising Stories of American Whiskey (Made and Bottled in Kentucky, 2014), Chapter 15, “Piano C. Red at Maxwell Street (with an Appearance by Old Grand-Dad Bonded Bourbon),” section “The Holy Trinity”.
Short citation
Cowdery, Bourbon, Strange, Chapter 15, “Piano C. Red at Maxwell Street (with an Appearance by Old Grand-Dad Bonded Bourbon),” section “The Holy Trinity”.
Evidence and limit
Cowdery states that African Americans—enslaved in some places and periods, free in others—performed much of whiskey-making’s difficult labor and that some attained distilling authority. He then describes an Early Times advertising image whose Black distillery crew became white in later versions and disappeared in still later versions.
This is an important archival lead rather than a complete labor history. Verify worker identities, roles, and the advertising sequence from primary collections.
Verification
September 29 fresh supplied-copy review: citation metadata and locator reconciled to the complete text and visual survey. PDF-sheet numbers are capture coordinates, not printed page numbers. Verified source fidelity does not establish historical truth.
Existing claim, literature-note and placement relations retained. Citation Status remains Used.