Becoming the Leaven in the Dough - Cyrus Bustill
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
October 20, 2024
Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. This morning, we continue our Speak Truth to Power: The Legacy of Quakers series. Our scripture is from Matthew 13:33 from the English Standard Version.
He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
One January Term while I was at Huntington University, a professor decided to offer a special class on the 30,000-year history of bread making. Since the class was two and half weeks long for several hours each day, the class would attempt to make a different bread each class period. They started with very rudimentary recipes, ingredients, and processes and ended with very complicated and sometimes failed attempts.
The campus ministry department where I worked was blessed to be a tasting stop for the group to get feedback. This may have been the best two weeks of my time at Huntington. What we often heard about from the students was not so much about the product they made, but the history and importance of the type of bread and its impact on our world. More than just a baking class this was a history lesson for our students.
Not that long ago, bakeries were a staple of our society and still are in many other countries. I have fond memories of going with my grandma to pick up items at the New Haven Bakery on Saturday mornings after the milk man delivered the milk to her back porch. (Wow, am I that old? Good Grief!) Today, in America we are seeing bakeries in local grocery stores being replaced by mass produced bakery items. Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s are sadly replacing the cakes we used to get in our neighborhoods at the locally owned bakeries like Taylor’s or Long’s here in Indy.
When I was serving a church in Rochester Hills, MI, a member of our church, had a dream to open a local bakery where people would again come each week for local bread. He based it on his family’s bakery back in Germany. He fought the big businesses and literally changed the minds of the locals that his bread was better than what was offered at the grocery stores. To this day, the bakery he started provides local artisan breads to the community of Rochester Hills.
I say all of this, because the Quaker we are looking at today is Cyrus Bustill, who went from being a slave to owning his own bakery, which he utilized as a means to speak his truth to power. Let me share a little of his story from Quaker Stories: Now and Then, Here and There:
Cyrus Bustill was born in Burlington, New Jersey on February 2, 1732. His father, Samuel Bustill, was a white lawyer, and his mother, Parthenia, was one of Samuel’s slaves. Samuel’s wife, Grace, was an active part of his life. Cyrus had four sisters. He described them as being two darker, two lighter, with him in the middle. His early childhood was a happy one at school and at home. He accompanied the family to meeting for worship each Sunday. Though encouraged to free his slaves by his fellow Quakers, Samuel Bustill, did not.
Samuel Bustill died suddenly when Cyrus was ten years old. Cyrus and his mother’s ownership was passed to Grace Bustill. Although circumstances did not change too much, Cyrus recognized that he had to take charge of his future. He asked to be apprenticed to a tradesman so he could gain skills, earn money, and purchase his freedom. His request was granted, and he was sold to a Quaker friend of his father’s, Thomas Pryor, a baker. Cyrus was freed in 1769, one of a hundred slaves freed between 1763-1769 in the Burlington Quarterly Meeting.
He opened a bakery and gained a reputation for honest practices and good bread. During the Revolutionary War, he was one of the bakers recruited by Thomas Ludwick to supply bread to the troops at Valley Forge. Cyrus saw this as a patriotic duty, not a distraction from his Quaker beliefs. The family tradition describes a personal appreciation from Thomas Falconer, head of supplies for the troops, and a gold coin reward from George Washington.
Following the war, he moved his family to Philadelphia, where he and his wife Elizabeth set up their household and his bakery. Elizabeth had also been attending Quaker meeting since her childhood. Her mother was a Native American woman, Satterthwait, and her father, Richard Morey, the son of the Quaker appointed by William Penn as the first mayor of Philadelphia.
Cyrus built up a successful business and became a leader in the African American community. He and his family regularly attended the Arch Street Meeting.
Cyrus’s clientele included both white and black families, all of whom he treated with dignity and respect. He was concerned about the treatment of blacks in the city and joined with other members of his community to found the Free African Society. This group promoted education for the children of their families, care for the poor, and protection from capture of runaway slaves. He participated in the underground railroad and helped found the St. Thomas African Episcopal Church even though he continued to attend Arch Street Meeting.
A favorite story about Cyrus Bustill says that one day he was driving his wagon along a country road to make a delivery. He encountered a buggy that was moving along the same road, rather slowly but fast enough to kick up dust in his face and on his goods. Soon he recognized the driver as a local judge, accustomed to tarry as he chose feeling certain in his social position. Cyrus decided he had eaten enough dust, encouraged his horses, and passed the judge, leaving him to “eat dust.” He knew this was as good a man as any other.
The judge recognized Cyrus and shouted to him that he would buy no more bread at his shop. Cyrus shouted, “So be it, Judge,” in return. Later, the Judge, missing his tasty bread, returned to Cyrus’ shop, purchased bread, and became his friend. Both men understood each other and the situation, but showed dignity and respect.
Cyrus Bustill’s legacy and influence in the African American community was large. His abolition activities were carried on by his daughter Grace and her daughter Sarah Mapps Douglass and by his grandson David Bustill Bowser, who was also a portrait painter of Abraham Lincoln and John Brown. Another grandson Robert became a portrait painter and was asked to come to England to do a portrait of Queen Victoria. Unfortunately, the Secretary of State refused him a passport, saying he was not a “citizen.” There were many of the family who followed in his footsteps as an educator, teaching and founding schools for African American children. Perhaps the most famous of his ancestors was Paul Roberson, actor, musician, and civil rights activist.
As we look at the takeaways from Cyrus’ life, I want to take a moment and return to our scripture for today – Jesus’ parable about the leaven. Here a woman mixes a small amount of leaven into a large quantity of flour. The leaven, which contains yeast and other living organisms, grows overnight and causes the entire batch of dough to rise.
I believe this parable exemplifies the life and legacy of Cyrus Bustill. The parable teaches that the kingdom of God will start in the lives of ordinary yet faithful people and has the potential to grow to impact the whole world. In many ways, all of the Friends we have talked about so far in this series could be considered the leaven in the dough of our world.
Early Quakers, including Cyrus believed the present kingdom of God could have a comprehensive effect, but it would start small and work from within. First within the heart of the individual and then from that individual to the community, and finally from that community to the world.
And just like the leaven quietly working its way through the dough, Cyrus had a profound impact on many of the sectors of society in his day and for that matter even still today. To think that Cyrus Bustill’s family would continue his legacy all the way down to most recently the life of Paul Robeson the Civil Rights Activist, singer and actor, and football player, who in the manner of his family spoke truth to power, saying,
“I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of fear”.
Before I left for Fall Break, I attended the Service Appreciation Dinner put on by our Witness and Service Committee. Nancy Scott was one of the people recognized for her service that night. When we opened the mic for others to share about Nancy, one thing I noticed was the number of people who spoke about Nancy’s work and commitment to the Afghan Project and specifically to the Afghan families. I was moved by their words and the impact Nancy’s commitment had on them.
I remember being at a party at Tim and Barb Decker’s home last year, and one of our Afghan families was invited and sat at our table. They seemed out of place, and it was a bit awkward trying to communicate - that is until Nancy arrived. Immediately, they came alive. The dough began to rise because the leaven was mixed in. The smiles and stories and immediate comfort the family expressed told the greater story of dignity and respect granted to them. They had a friend, an advocate, a person willing to go out of their way to make them feel welcome.
Like Cyrus Bustill, Nancy has used her gifts, been an advocate, created opportunities for the oppressed, and spoke her truth to power. She is one of many in our meeting that I believe are the leaven needed in our society, today. Thank you, Nancy for continuing that legacy.
So, now it is time to turn the table on ourselves. And like usual, I have some queries for us to ponder in light of Cyrus Bustill’s story and this message.
1. How am I the “leaven in the dough of society? How is First Friends?
2. No matter my occupation (baker, singer, portrait painter…) how am I using it to further the Kingdom of God?
3. In my business and life do I try to treat all people with dignity and respect? Who are the hardest to treat in this manner? Why?