The narrative of Bethany Veney, a slave woman

Description

 Bethany Veney was born a slave in 1815 on James Fletcher’s plantation in Luray, Page County, Virginia. She had a daughter by her first husband, identified in this narrative as Jerry, and a son by her second husband, Frank Veney. She served a number of different enslavers, and was separated from her family for a time before being sold to a northern businessman, G.J. Adams, who freed her and her son. Veney worked for Adams and his family in the North. After living for a short time in Providence, Rhode Island, Veney settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, with her daughter and three grandchildren.

Bethany Veney published The Narrative of Bethany Veney, a Slave Woman in 1889, over twenty years after slavery was abolished. It includes details of her childhood, incidents that occurred while serving various masters, the way she received her freedom, and her new life in the North.