Bethany Veney

Bethany Veney
Born
Bethany Johnson

c. 1812–1815
near Luray, Virginia, in what is now Page County, Virginia
Died(1915-11-16)November 16, 1915[1][2]
Worcester, Massachusetts
Other names"Aunt Betty",[3] Betsy,[1] "Aunt Betsy"[2]
Known forAunt Betty's Story: The Narrative of Bethany Veney, A Slave Woman (1889)
Spouses
  • Jerry Fickland
  • Frank Veney
Children
  • Charlotte E. Fickland (1844 –1921)
  • Joe Veney
Parent(s)Joseph and Charlotte Johnson

Bethany Veney (c. 1812–1815[a] – November 16, 1915[b]), was an American writer whose autobiography and slave narrative, Aunt Betty's Story: The Narrative of Bethany Veney, A Slave Woman, was published in 1889. Born into slavery on a farm near Luray, Virginia, as Bethany Johnson, married twice, first to an enslaved man, Jerry Fickland, with whom she had a daughter, Charlotte. He was sold away from her and she later married Frank Veney, a free black man. She was sold on an auction block to her enslaver, George J. Adams, who brought her to Providence, Rhode Island, and later to Worcester, Massachusetts. After the American Civil War, Veney made four trips to Virginia to move her daughter and her family and 16 additional family members north to New England.

  1. ^ a b c "Mrs. Betsy Veney Was Purchased by Providence Man and Given Her Freedom". Norwich Bulletin. November 17, 1915. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  2. ^ a b c d "Aunt Betsy: Veney dies at age of 103". The Boston Globe. November 17, 1915. p. 5. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  3. ^ Veney 1889.
  4. ^ a b c Wolfe, Brendan. "Bethany Veney". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  5. ^ "Bettie Venney, Worcester Ward 7, Worcester, Massachusetts", Twelfth Census of the United States, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nugent was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b "Bethany (Stevens) Veney, died November 16, 1915, Worcester, Massachusetts", Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911, Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society


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