Into the Allentown courtroom where abolitionist Frederick Douglass spoke to a capacity crowd 155 years ago stepped his contemporary doppelganger, a scholar and reenactor named Darius Wallace who announced himself with song.

“Swing low,” he sang, “sweet chariot…”

The words of the old spiritual filled the Gold Courtroom of the Historic Lehigh Valley Courthouse on Saturday, borne on Wallace’s powerful baritone and setting the mood for a 45-minute performance that went far beyond oratory into an almost cinematic rendering of episodes in Douglass’ impossibly eventful life.

Born into slavery in Maryland in 1818, Douglass escaped bondage when he fled north in 1838. By the time he spoke in the courtroom, on April 8, 1870, he was internationally known and admired. His speech —a two-hour reflection on immigration called “A Composite Nation” — sold out.

Wallace gave a different speech, called “Self-Made Men.” More precisely, he built a performance around the core of Douglass’ original oration, weaving in episodes of the abolitionist’s life as a slave and, later, a man rising in renown and esteem to the point where he was welcomed to the White House by Abraham Lincoln.

Wallace’s appearance was sponsored by the Lehigh County Historical Society in cooperation with President Judge J. Brian Johnson and the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County. It is one what will be a long series of programs around the county celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary next year.

Johnson opened the event by asking attendees to turn off their cell phones — not just as a matter of courtesy, he said, but to help conjure the sense that cell phones and suchlike contrivances hadn’t yet been invented.

“We’re essentially going back in time,” he said. “Cell phones kind of take you out of the moment. Let this courtroom be our time machine and let us go back 150 years to meet Frederick Douglass in person.”

It was easy enough to forget the present inside the spacious courtroom, restored to a pristine period look along with the rest of the old courthouse in a decade-long renovation.

Wallace used the space as a stage, roaming up the aisles to lock eyes with a spectator, bobbing and scratching the carpet like a chicken as he told an allegorical tale about an eagle accidentally born in a barnyard, and now and again lifting his voice into song.

The snippets of spirituals served almost as chapter headings as Wallace’s emotive Douglass recounted his early days being raised by his grandmother and his increasingly horrified comprehension of servitude.

The Old Testament images, drawn from the stories of Moses and the captive Israelites, reflected the heartbreaking lot of the slave: the cruel masters, the crushing labor, the laws that made it a capital offense to teach a slave to read or write.

“As a boy I did not understand those songs,” he said. “They told a tale of woe that was altogether beyond my comprehension.”

Other stories threw into stark relief the gap between the American ideal and the stain of slavery. An anecdote about one of Douglass’ cruelest masters made for a pithy illustration.

“He beat me every day except Sunday,” he said. “He was a religious man.”

Wallace also recreated one of the three White House meetings between Douglass and Lincoln, pantomiming the pair sharing tea and debating the presence of Black soldiers in the Union army.

Wallace’s performance — which he will repeat Monday at three Allentown School District assemblies — drew a long standing ovation from the crowd of about 200.

“Fabulous,” declared Margot Kent, a German-born Allentonian growing teary eyed as the applause died down. “What a talent.”

Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 610-820-6598 or dsheehan@mcall.com