Worcester Business Journal

32 W o r c e s t e r 3 0 0 : C i t y o f I n n o v a t o r s 1822-1921 B ringing her family back togeth- er aer the end of slavery was the driving force for Betha- ny Veney. If anyone might know the true cost of the important things in life, it is someone who has been on the auction block and has seen family sold away. Bethany Veney didn't invent the laun- dry bluing she sold door to door. It has its origins in antiquity. It eliminates the yellow caste from white fabric and was a laundry staple from the late 1800s on. But from Veney's door-to-door sales of bluing, she created a mini-community for herself and extended family whom she brought to Worcester. Born into slavery in Page County, Va. as one of five children, Veney was 9 years old the year that both her mother and her master, James Fletcher, died mere months apart. e enslaved people he held were split up among his five daughters and two sons. Veney married twice, once to an enslaved man with whom she had a daughter. He was sold away, escaped, and went missing; she never saw him again. She later married freedman Frank Veney. Aer several turns at slave auction, during which she lost contact with him, she was able to work for a household that allowed her to keep part of her annual earnings and rent a house from her employer. However, when that owner's property was seized for gambling debt, copper mining speculator George Adams, for whom she also worked as a cook and housekeeper, purchased Veney and her son for $775 and moved them to Providence, where he freed both of them. She lost her son to illness in 1859 and sought to reunite her scattered family. Adams' family subsequently moved to Worcester, taking her with them. Feeling safe in Massachusetts, without the fear of the auction block, she began establishing a life, and when the Adamses moved back to Providence, she remained in Worcester. She established church connections and an economic base from which to seek and gather her family aer the war's end. While the origins of bluing have many sources, what Veney did with the proceeds of her sales was not. She bought a house for herself at 21 Tus Street, as well as other houses, to serve as a home base for a total of 18 family members who came north. — Christina P. O'Neill Using her sales skills, Veney rebuilt a family torn apart by slavery Queen of the blues From Veney's door- to-door sales of bluing, she created a mini-community for herself and tended family. A drawing of a younger Bethany Veney A photo of Veney in her later years Images | Worcester Public Library

• Cover