Black History Month : Black Founders

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, In celebration of Black History Month the Ridgewood blog recognizes the contributions of Black Founders and Patriots who fought and contributed to the founding of this Great Nation .

Cyrus Bustill

Cyrus Bustill was born in Burlington in 1732. His father was an English lawyer and his mother a slave. Because the status of the child follows the status of the mother, this meant that Bustill was a slave. He was trained to be a baker by a Thomas Prior, who was a Quaker. At the age of 36, Bustill got his freedom. During the American Revolutiion he helped the army with something it had a great need for, bread. He was commended for this service and received a silver piece for General George Washington.

 

After the war, Bustill and his wife, who also mixed race – the daughter of an Englishman and a Delaware Indian, moved to Philadelphia. There they and their eight children attended Quaker meetings. Bustill was also an early member of the Free African Society which began in 1787. This is the society established by black Founders Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. When Bustill retired as a baker, he opened a school. He dies in 1806.

Oliver Cromwell 

Oliver Cromwell was born in the colony of New Jersey, near Burlington. There seems to be some confusion on his birth date. One source has it as May 24, 1753, while another puts it in 1752. He was light skinned, a farmer, and was raised by the family of John Hutchin. It is possible that he was born a free black.

He served in the second New Jersey regiment under Captain Lowery and and Colonel Israel Shreve. He served in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Monmouth, and Yorktown. He made the famous crossing of the Delaware on December 25, 1776.

George Washington personally signed Cromwell’s discharge papers at the end of the war. Washington also designed a medal which was presented to Cromwell. He later applied for a pension as a veteran. He could not read or write, but he was very well liked in the community of Burlington. Local lawyers, judges, and politicians helped him to get the pension of $96 a year. Cromwell purchased a 100 acre farm, fathered 14 children, and moved into Burlington in his later years. He outlived 8 of his children, and died when he was 100 years old. He is buried in the Methodist churchyard in Burlington, where some of his descendants still live.

https://www.earstohear.net/Heritage/BlackFounders.html