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DENTON – A well-known figure from Talbot County’s past was brought to life the evening of Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, at Lockerman Middle School in Denton. About 75 attended the hour-long performance of “Uncle Nace: The Day Freedom Came.”
“I thought it was excellent,” said Denton native and retired teacher Connie Smith, a descendant of Uncle Nace.
Actor and storyteller Darius Wallace sketched the highlights of the life of Nathaniel Hopkins, the Trappe native known affectionately as “Uncle Nace,” who established the only Emancipation Day parade that has been been held continuously since Nov. 1, 1867, and has since been called Nace’s Day.
“Nace’s Day” still echoes more than a century later, a call to remember that liberty is never given, only claimed,” according to the Caroline County Historical Society’s website.
Although his roots were in Trappe, one of his direct descendants and the performance’s emcee was well-known retired educator Dale Brown, former principal of Lockerman Middle School. Hopkins is Brown’s third great-grandfather.
“We live in a culturally rich area,” Brown said, mentioning Talbot County native Frederick Douglass and Dorchester County native Harriett Tubman, both well-known Eastern Shore heroes.
Brown, who retired from Caroline County Public Schools in 2011 after 35 years, was principal of Lockerman Middle School from 2000 to 2011.
Setting the historical context for Wallace’s performance was fellow Oxford native Paul Callahan, a director of the Talbot County Historical Society. The Society and Hopkins’ descendants sponsored the performance, which was repeated at several venues in the Mid-Shore area.
“Born enslaved on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, … Hopkins carried the scars of bondage but refused to let them define him,” states the Caroline County Historical Society’s website. Although illiterate Hopkins founded the first Black school in Talbot County, as well as the building of the first Black church in Trappe.
“You see, emancipation may have opened the door, but education, education, education helped us walk right through it,” Wallace said through Hopkins’ persona.
Wallace’s inspiring script presented several characters, and he altered his resonant voice to portray Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and even Hopkins’ enslaver, among others. During his minimal set and costume changes, Wallace sang 19th century gospel spirituals.
Born about 1834, by the time the Civil War began Hopkins was a middle-aged man. Entering behind the audience in the uniform of the 19th U.S. Colored Troops, Wallace invited the audience to join in as he sang “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
“During the Civil War ‘Uncle Nace’ enlisted with the United States Colored Troops, fighting for a freedom he has yet to taste for himself. Sent home sick and weary, he returned to Trappe determined to build a new life as a free man not just for himself, but for his entire community,” the CCHS website states.
“We ain't begging for freedom. We celebrate it,” Wallace said as Uncle Nace. “We were born slaves. We marched in uniform. We came home, built roads, churches, schools, and now we're going to march, not for them, but for us and for the next generation of children.”
