Bussey opened a gold and silversmith shop in Dedham in 1778 where he made spurs, spoons, and other objects from metal. To finance the endeavor, he received a $50 loan from his grandfather. He learned the trade from a
Hessian soldier. According to his autobiography, his rule was "never to adulterate any metal and never to sell silverware inferior to [silver] dollars." Examples of his work, which include Neoclassical punchwork, can now be found in the collections of the
Harvard Art Museums and the
Dedham Museum and Archive. As his business on East Street prospered, he soon added general merchandise. He purchased the house where his shop was located and lived above it after less than a year of working in the trade. Between 1778 and 1790, Bussey accumulated $25,000 (roughly $700,000 in 2020 dollars). Bussey took the $25,000 he made to Boston in 1790 where he ran a shipping and trading company for 16 years at five different locations. He lived in a mansion on Summer Street surrounded by large gardens. He also opened a store on State Street. Bussey's mercantile efforts expanded from furs to include sugar, flour, cotton, coffee, and other commodities that he traded with Europeans. The goods crossed the Atlantic on ships Bussey owned himself. As a businessman, he almost never accepted or asked for credit, preferring to operate in cash only. He continued to buy up plots of land in Dedham, eventually totaling 45 acres around his home and 150 acres at
Connecticut Corner. He also bought and sold land in Downtown Boston, and eventually amassed large holdings in Boston, Dedham, and
Bangor, Maine. Bussey also had a number of other business interests, including a private bank. He left retirement at the age of 62 to return to Dedham where he purchased the
Norfolk Cotton Manufacturing Company on Maverick Street along
Mother Brook. Bussey had previously owned stock in the company. The
War of 1812 had brought ruin to the company, and he purchased it in 1819 for $12,500, a sum far below cost. Bussey used the wool from his sheep, producing a high-caliber product that sold well. Bussey then bought a failed woolen mill from the
Dedham Worsted Company only three years after they opened on the street that now bears his name, for $20,000 in 1824. There he combined spinning and weaving under the same operation with unified management, creating one of New England's first integrated textile mills. Bussey brought in the best equipment and refurbished many of the old buildings. He was one of the first to install water-powered broad
looms, enabling him to spin and weave the raw wool into finished fabric. It was said that the factories, dye houses, dwellings, and other buildings associated with the operation "of themselves constitute a little village." Bussey named the company the
Dedham Woolen Mills. In 1837, Bussey underwrote part of the cost of a library above Boyden's Store, which was also the mill store, for the benefit of the residents of
Mill Village. It was known as the Bussey Social and Circulating Library and was only open to paying members. It failed after a few years for lack of support.
Relationship with slavery Though Bussey was an abolitionist, and signed an anti-slavery petition in 1807, he was complicit with slavery in his professional pursuits. He shipped products to the islands of the
West Indies, places where the land was considered too valuable to grow food for slaves. He also sent, in ships owned or financed by him, rough toe cloth that was used to clothe slaves. More than half of the voyages on his ships or those he financed were to provision these islands, where the slaves were often worked to death in the heat. He also traded with the
American South, purchasing tobacco and cotton grown by the enslaved and selling building materials and farming implements. He then shipped the raw materials from southern plantations to Europe, where he bought dinnerware, fabric, and other high-end goods. When he lived in Boston he attended the Hollis Street Church and then the Third Parish of Roxbury when he retired to Woodland Hill. The pastors of both were active in the abolitionist cause. Rev. Thomas Gray, who preached at the Third Parish Church, was one of Bussey's closest friends. In 1789, Bussey took in "James White, a Black boy" from
Dedham's poor house as an apprentice. Bussey promised to educate White, teaching him reading and writing as well as to cypher. He also promised to feed and clothe the boy, and to set him up as give him a job as a nail maker when his apprenticeship was complete. Neiswander believes the Bussey was able to "compartmentalize, separating his beliefs from the business activities which made him rich." ==Electoral career==