WooSox Recognize Employees with Historic Lineage on Juneteenth

Before their matchup with the Columbus Clippers on Juneteenth—June 19, 2024, the Worcester Red Sox recognized three employees––Benetta Kouffor, Niecia Thomas-Bradshaw, and Deirdre Ward––who share a common lineage. The three are descendants of Bethany Veney, a formerly enslaved person who had a profound impact on the Worcester community.

Born into slave status in Loray, Virginia in 1815, Veney was one of five siblings. When she was only nine years old, her enslaver, James Fletcher, and mother both passed away, leading to the separation of Veney and the rest of her family.

Separation became a common theme throughout Veney’s life. About 20 years following her family’s split, her first husband, Jerry Fickland, was sold in a slave auction only a year after their marriage. Soon after, she gave birth to her first child, Charlotte, whom she raised on her own until she married Frank Veney about a decade later. The two would have a child together, but Bethany and her newborn son would soon be bought by a man named Jay Adams.

Fortunately for Bethany, Adams was an abolitionist. After purchasing Veney’s freedom, he sent Bethany and her son, Joseph, to Providence, Rhode Island where they began their lives as freed people. Not too long after their arrival in Providence, though, Joseph tragically passed away following a battle with an illness. Despite her freedom from slavery’s bondage, Veney was completely detached from kin once again.

Feeling alone, Veney moved to Worcester in hopes of finding the sense of community that had been stripped from her time and time again. It was in Worcester that Veney found home.

In the Heart of the Commonwealth, Veney worked as a laundress and a cook, often serving Frederick Douglas and Union soldiers during the Civil War. A devout Christian, Veney was invested in Worcester’s Christian community, helping build Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867.

Recounting the importance of her faith, Veney’s great-granddaughter, Benetta Kouffor, said, “Her Christian life was more important to her than any other life that she lived. She begged her enslaver back in Virigina to let her go to Church meetings. But he said that if he caught her in those meetings, then he’d beat her. So, she went to his father and begged him to let her go, and that was the beginning of her Christian education.”

Consequently, Veney found herself free and building a Christian community in Worcester. However, feelings of loss and loneliness haunted Veney her entire life.

When the Civil War ended, Veney traveled to Virginia four times, finding and bringing Charlotte and 15 other relatives home to Worcester. With the money she had made in her previous work, Veney purchased property for her family––so they’d never be separate again.

Benetta Kouffor now works for the WooSox as an usher along with her cousin, Deidre, and granddaughter, Niecia. In between her two jobs––one with the WooSox and another as a medical professional––Kouffor works to spread the history of her family’s matriarch.

“People across the country know who she is, but no one in Worcester does,” she said.

According to Kouffor, Veney and other family headstones have been damaged or displaced over the years. With some help from friends in Virginia, Kouffor and her family were able to purchase a new, rose-colored headstone, displaying Bethany’s name at the top and the lost family names beneath––reuniting the family for the rest of time.

Kouffor was grateful to represent her family’s history on the field at Polar Park on Juneteenth. The holiday, first celebrated in Texas on June 19, 1865, is observed to commemorate the abolition of slavery and freedom for all Americans.

“Juneteenth is in honor of those who were enslaved and worked two years past their emancipation,” Kouffor explained. “Bethany Veney believed in her freedom and treasured it––it was precious to her.”

She continued, “Juneteenth is important, not only for the people that were forgotten about in Texas, but it has a lot to do with the people that were forgotten about everywhere.”

With Kouffor serving as the living representation of her great-grandmother––who was born into slavery and endured the treacherous feelings of fear, loss, and separation throughout her life––June 19, 2024 was an opportunity for Worcester to be reminded of those who came before.

For Kouffor, the reminder is present every day in a simple photo collage.

Photographs of seven generations––beginning with Bethany and ending with Benetta’s granddaughter––are fit side-by-side, depicting the first to experience freedom all the way to the present day. It’s a symbolic illustration of how far the family has come––and a daily reminder to ensure Bethany’s story is told.

“To me, she speaks for all women who have been enslaved and had the struggle,” Kouffor said. “Some, unfortunately, never escaped the South. I think that she represents all women of that time.”