Author of the autobiography, Aunt Betty's Story: The Narrative of Bethany Veney, A Slave Woman (1889). Born a slave in the Shenandoah Valley, she struggled with the differences between different slaveholders, the instability of marriage as a slave, and the fear of being sold outside the area where many of her family members lived. In the 1850s, she was purchased by an abolition-minded George James Adams from Rhode Island, and sent to Providence, Rhode Island. Though she gained her freedom, she was also separated from her second husband, Frank Veney, as a result of the freedom. She moved to Worcester, Massachusetts just before the Civil War and after the war, she returned to Virginia several times and brought sixteen relatives to Worcester with her, including her daughter Charlotte and her husband Aaron Jackson. She resided in Worcester for the balance of her life. On July 12, 2003, the Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, signed a proclamation honoring Bethany Veney and her life by declaring the day "Bethany Veney Day in Worcester, Massachusetts."
Author of the autobiography, Aunt Betty's Story: The Narrative of Bethany Veney, A Slave Woman (1889). Born a slave in the Shenandoah Valley, she struggled with the differences between different slaveholders, the instability of marriage as a slave, and the fear of being sold outside the area where many of her family members lived. In the 1850s, she was purchased by an abolition-minded George James Adams from Rhode Island, and sent to Providence, Rhode Island. Though she gained her freedom, she was also separated from her second husband, Frank Veney, as a result of the freedom. She moved to Worcester, Massachusetts just before the Civil War and after the war, she returned to Virginia several times and brought sixteen relatives to Worcester with her, including her daughter Charlotte and her husband Aaron Jackson. She resided in Worcester for the balance of her life. On July 12, 2003, the Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, signed a proclamation honoring Bethany Veney and her life by declaring the day "Bethany Veney Day in Worcester, Massachusetts."
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