The makers of Jack Daniel's, America's favourite whiskey, have admitted for the first time that a Tennessee slave was behind its legendary recipe.

For 150 years credit for teaching the young Jack Daniel how to distill had gone to the Rev. Dan Call, a Lutheran preacher in Tennessee.

But the company said it was not Call but his slave, a man called Nearis Green, who in fact provided the expertise, the New York Times reported.

As a boy Jasper Newton 'Jack' Daniel, was sent to work for Call, who as wellas being a minister ran a general store and distillery.

In the mid 19th Century distilleries were owned by white businessmen but much of the work making the whiskey was done by slaves.

Many slaves relied on techniques brought from Africa and became experts, often making it clandestinely.

George Washington had half a dozen slaves working under Scottish foremen at his distillery in Virginia.

In 1805 Andrew Jackson, the future president, offered a bounty for a slave who had run away, describing him as a "good distiller".

The key role of Green in advising Jack Daniel had been suspected before but, like that of many slaves, his contribution to the development of American whiskeys was never recorded.