Was the Original ‘Aunt Jemima’ a Millionaire Entrepreneur?

A series of posts on Facebook and Twitter responding to Quaker Oats’ decision to discontinue the Aunt Jemima logo and brand went viral as they claimed to tell the history of Aunt Jemima.

The posts make similar claims: that discontinuing the brand is an affront to the legacy of the “original” Aunt Jemima, a former slave named Nancy Green who was the first model hired to portray the character. With a few variations, the posts say that Green created a cooking brand that was purchased by a larger company, which...