most interestingly, george hillard became the united states commissioner. commissioners were responsible under the 1850's fugitive slave law for returning runaway slaves to their -- the word then was rightful owners in the south. interesting enough, while hillard is doing this by day he goes home at night, and there is half the page family living in his attic. one wonders how much his heart was really in abiding by the fugitive slave law or whether he was engaged in his own one-man protest against it. that being said, rgl lived with the hillard's until the end of the civil war. he was taught a trade, brass finishing and started to mingle , with boston african-american elite. he met his wife at the 12th baptist church and married her in 1868. she was the sister of george ruffin, the first african-american man to graduate from harvard law school. his wife, josephine st. pierre, was a well-known suffragette. after the war rgl returns to , norfolk, becomes a member of the general assembly during reconstruction, and goes on to be a lawyer, businessman, and wealt