BY DEVON WILLIAMS
NJ State House News Service
Smoke from the campfire drifted across the courtyard of Trenton’s Old Barracks as Daryian Kelton paused mid-conversation to stir a pot of potatoes, turnips, beef, peas and water.
To most visitors, it looked like stew. To Kelton, a Revolutionary War reenactor, it was a recipe to talk about complex issues of class, farming, economics and identity in 18th-century America. To him, even the smallest inquiry can be “a loaded question” and a chance to look more deeply into exactly “how and why people do things [and] what motivates them to do things.”
Kelton, dressed head-to-toe in a handmade colonial officer’s wool navy blue and red jacket dotted with shining buttons, tan wool breeches, and low-quarter black leather shoes with brass buckles, has participated in reenactments for more than a decade, teaching visitors ranging from elementary school children on field trips to locals. He says Revolutionary reenactment began as a hobby, but more and more he was fascinated by how even the smallest details at the Old Barracks hold meaning– right down to the metal pot swinging above the campfire from a makeshift rope that shows how people made due with what they had and worked together to survive in the constantly changing landscape of battle.
The Old Barracks’ location, in the heart of the state capital and just a block away from the historic State House, continues its story of freedom and justice. The Old Barracks were built in 1758 during the French and Indian War and constructed by the colony of New Jersey in response to residents who rejected quartering of British soldiers in their own homes.
In the Revolution, the Barracks was used by the British and Americans alike, housing British prisoners of war and colonial soldiers before then becoming a hospital where the Continental Army performed smallpox inoculations.
“Trenton, in particular, has a lot of history,” said Kelton, an interpreter at the site. “Anybody that you can name from the American Revolution has probably passed through…. it’s literally a hub for everybody.”
There isn’t just one story to America’s founding, and people like Kelton ensure that those who have been erased in the past are brought to light now. One story Kelton highlights is about a man named Prime, an enslaved person owned by the state of New Jersey who served in the American Revolution. In 1786 the New Jersey legislature formally granted Prime the “blessings of liberty” due to his service and his continuous fight and determination for freedom, three years after the war ended.
For Kelton, stories like Prime’s expand the ambitious values of American liberty to those often forgotten.
Kelton, a Black man with long locs tucked beneath his black tricorn officer’s cap with a single button and black bow, said visitors often ask whether he feels a conflict portraying the Revolutionary era. To him, there is none.
“I just put on a costume, so to speak… a lot of the plights that we have today started somewhere” he said. “This is just a cover to talk about different things.”
To Kelton, explaining untold stories like Prime’s show that everyone has a valued place in Revolutionary history.
Identity itself is a hot topic today across America. “Everyone is having collective and group identity right now,” Kelton said, pointing to Pride Month, the 250th anniversary and even the World Cup. “It makes people think about how they want to be a parent, how they want to be a citizen, what they want to do with the rest of their life.”
To Kelton, this self-knowledge through history is vital: “If you don’t know where you come from then you don’t know where you’re going.”
Trenton’s historic Old Barracks Museum  is set to reopen to the public after a year-long restoration with a celebration on Saturday, July 4, and a living history demonstration on Sunday, July 5.
Assembly Member Verrelli photographed with the staff of the Old Barracks Museum.
