A Remarkable Woman
On June 10, the life of Bethany Veney was celebrated by the dedication of an interpretive marker and memorial garden in Luray. This remarkable woman, who had been enslaved in Page County, documented her life in Aunt Betty’s Story: The Narrative of Bethany Veney, A Slave Woman. The narrative can be found here. Bound copies can be purchased at various sites online.
Born into slavery, Bethany never knew her father and was left an orphan as a child when her mother died. She later married and had a daughter with an enslaved man named Jerry Fickland. When her husband learned he was to be sold, he ran away, but was captured by a slave trader and they never saw each other again.
Bethany was able to avoid being sold, and eventually was allowed to pay her owner an annual fee while keeping for herself the rest of the money she earned doing laundry, sewing, cooking, and field work. Bethany married a free black man named Frank Veney, and they had a son named Joe. When her owner developed debts and she learned he planned to sell her, she approached a Rhode Island copper mining speculator she had worked for. He purchased her and her son, and in 1859 they went north with him to Providence, where they became free. Her husband did not join them.
Later, Bethany moved to Worcester, Massachusetts. After the end of the Civil War, she made multiple trips back to Virginia, bringing family members north with her, including her daughter Charlotte and Charlotte’s husband and child. She lived to be more than 100 years old and is buried in Hope cemetery in Worcester.
The Bethany Veney historic marker and remembrance garden project involved the efforts of numerous groups and individuals. Some of her descendants came to Luray for the dedication and expressed their appreciation and plans to return. Other speakers represented the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, the Luray Caverns, the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project, and the town of Luray.
The marker is part of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation’s Long Road to Freedom Project. A grant was provided by the National Park Service. The location, materials, and site preparation were provided by Luray Caverns, remembrance garden landscaping is courtesy of the Luray Hill and Valley Garden club and, and a bench was donated by the town of Luray and the Comer family.
“Betty Veney may have been born a slave, but the pure soul that looked out of her flashing eyes was never in bondage to any miserable being calling himself her master.”
(Bishop W.F. Mallalieu, from the introduction to “Aunt Betty’s Story”)
The Bethany Veney marker is found in the town of Luray, Virginia, on West Main Street east of the Singing Tower carillon.