Early Years
During his ten years in Boston he received an education and may have picked up some knowledge of law from the abolitionist George Stillman Hillard, who sponsored him and his aunt, or from attorney George L. Ruffin, a Richmond native, one of the first African Americans to graduate from Harvard, and the first African American judge in Massachusetts. Paige married Ruffin's sister, Lillie A. Ruffin, in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on November 26, 1868. They lived in Chelsea, where he worked as a journeyman in a metalworking shop and accumulated real and personal property worth more than $4,000. They had five sons and three daughters, and another child whose gender is not known.
R. G. L. Paige, as he was known after he returned to Virginia in 1870, settled in the town of Berkley, in Norfolk County, which the city of Norfolk annexed in 1906. He and two of his brothers purchased land in Norfolk County in 1868, and during the 1870s and 1880s he bought and sold several lots in Berkley and some tracts of land in the county, some on his own and some in partnership with others. In December 1880 he and two other men purchased the local African American burial ground (later Mount Olive Cemetery), sometimes known as the Paige Cemetery.
Political Career
Later Years
Time Line
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May 31, 1846 - R. G. L. Paige is born into slavery in Norfolk.
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ca. 1857 - R. G. L. Paige escapes Norfolk and slavery aboard a schooner bound for Philadelphia. He soon settles in Boston.
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1868 - R. G. L. Paige and two of his brothers purchase land in Norfolk County.
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November 26, 1868 - R. G. L. Paige and Lillie A. Ruffin marry in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
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1870 - R. G. L. Paige, once a runaway slave, returns to Virginia and settles in Berkley, Norfolk County.
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1871 - R. G. L. Paige, a former slave, wins election to the House of Delegates, representing Norfolk County.
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January 17, 1872 - R. G. L. Paige chairs a meeting of African American legislators that petitions Congress to pass a pending civil rights bill.
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April 1872 - R. G. L. Paige serves as a secretary of the Republican State Convention.
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June 5–6, 1872 - R. G. L. Paige serves as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, in Philadelphia.
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July 1873 - R. G. L. Paige is elected president of the Republican State Convention.
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1873 - R. G. L. Paige wins reelection to the House of Delegates, representing Norfolk County.
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June 1, 1874 - R. G. L. Paige is appointed assistant clerk of the customs house in Norfolk.
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1879 - R. G. L. Paige is elected to the House of Delegates, representing Norfolk County.
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January 21, 1880 - R. G. L. Paige introduces a resolution seeking justice for lynchings in Amherst and Fauquier counties.
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July 6, 1880 - R. G. L. Paige qualifies to practice law, perhaps the first African American lawyer in Norfolk.
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December 1880 - R. G. L. Paige and two other men purchase an African American burial ground that comes to be known as Paige Cemetery (later Mount Olive Cemetery).
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March 14, 1881 - R. G. L. Paige serves as a vice president at the Petersburg Convention, a meeting of African American Republicans.
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1881 - R. G. L. Paige wins reelection to the House of Delegates, representing Norfolk County.
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March 7, 1882 - The governor appoints R. G. L. Paige one of the curators responsible for overseeing federal money granted to the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.
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Early 1883 - By this time R. G. L. Paige has become assistant postmaster of Norfolk.
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1892 - R. G. L. Paige writes a short will leaving all his property to his wife.
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September 21 or 22, 1904 - R. G. L. Paige dies of peritonitis at his home in Berkley, Norfolk County. He is buried in Mount Olive Cemetery.
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April 27, 1913 - Lillie Ruffin Paige, the widow of R. G. L. Paige, dies.
References
Further Reading
External Links
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Kiesel, D., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. R. G. L. Paige (1846–1904). (2018, April 20). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Paige_R_G_L_1846-1904.
- MLA Citation:
Kiesel, Diane and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "R. G. L. Paige (1846–1904)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 20 Apr. 2018. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: July 28, 2016 | Last modified: April 20, 2018
Contributed by Diane Kiesel and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography.