Nancy Green (aka Aunt Jemima) -shoulder bag

This attractive mixed colored leather shoulder bag is great to go anywhere and for any season. This bag is created in a variety of leather colors, orange, olive , chocolate and  biscuit . The bag is fully lined with two good sized interior pockets .  This 14" X 14"  bag is gonna be a delight to carry.

                                                      It's in the bag !

Nancy Hayes (or Hughes) was born enslaved on March 4, 1834.Montgomery county ,Kentucky. She married a tobacco farmer George Green and became Nancy Green.

Green has been variously described as a servant, nurse, nanny, housekeeper, and cook for Charles Morehead Walker and his wife Amanda. She also served the family’s next generation, again as a nanny and a cook.]

By the end of the American Civil War, Green had already lost her husband and children. She lived in a wood frame shack  behind a grand home on Main Street in Covington, Kentucky. She moved with the Walkers from Kentucky to Chicago in the early 1870s. The Walker family initially settled in a swank residential district near Ashland Avenue and Washington Boulevard called the "Kentucky Colony," then home to many transplanted Kentuckians.

On the recommendation of Judge Walker, she was hired 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.They were looking for a Mammy archetype to promote their product.

At the age of 59, Green made her debut as Aunt Jemima at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, beside the "world's largest flour barrel" (24 feet high), where she operated a pancake-cooking display, sang songs, and told romanticized stories about the Old South (claiming it was a happy place for blacks and whites alike).

After the Expo, Green was reportedly offered a lifetime contract to adopt the Aunt Jemima moniker and promote the pancake mix; however, it is likely the offer was part of the lore created for the character rather than Green herself. This marked the beginning of a major promotional push by the company that included thousands of personal appearances and Aunt Jemima merchandising. She appeared at fairs, festivals, flea markets, food shows, and local grocery stores. Her arrival was heralded by large billboards featuring the caption, "I'se in town, honey."

Despite her "lifetime contract," she portrayed the role for no more than 20 years.She refused to cross the ocean for the 1900 Paris exhibition. She was replaced by Agnes Moodey, "a negress of 60 years", who was then reported as the original Aunt Jemima

In 1910, at age 76, Green was still working as a residential housekeeper according to the census .Few people were aware of her role as Aunt Jemima.