p. 197 | THE DARK DAY by Ella A. Drinkwater

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · March 25, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 13

THE DARK DAY.

By Ella A. Drinkwater

Of all the wonderful stories that my great-grandmother used to tell my mother when she was a little girl, the most wonderful was about the dark day in New England, Friday, May 19, 1780. This was during our Revolution, you will remember, and the same year in which the traitor, Benedict Arnold, attempted to betray his country to its enemies.

For several days before the 19th the air was full of vapors, as we often see it when fires are raging in the woods near us; and the sun and moon appeared red, and their usual clear light did not reach us, especially when rising and setting. The wind blew chiefly from the southwest and northeast, and the weather was cool and clear. The morning of the 19th was cloudy, and in many places slight showers fell, sometimes accompanied by thunder and lightning; but as the sun arose, it did not increase the light, and the darkness deepened and deepened, until the children standing before the tall clocks could not see to tell the time, and older people peering over the almanac were not able to distinguish the letters. The birds sang their evening songs and flew to their nests in the woods, the poultry hurried to their roosts, while the cattle in the fields uttered strange cries and leaped the stone fences to gain their stalls, and the sheep all huddled together, bleating piteously.

Color, which you know depends upon the light of the sun, filled many with astonishment by its unusual appearance; for the clouds were in some places of a light red, yellow, and brown; the leaves on the trees and the grass in the meadows were of the deepest green, verging on indigo; the brightest silver seemed tarnished, and everything that is white in the sunlight bore a deep yellow hue.

The shadows, which before noon fall to the westward and after noon to the eastward, were observed during the darkness to fall in every direction.

The rain, also, was unlike any other rain, and it set the people to wondering as they dipped it from tubs and barrels; for a scum, resembling burnt leaves and emitting a sooty smell, formed on the water; and this same substance was seen on rivers, especially the Merrimac, where it lay four or five inches thick, for many miles along its shore.

Another peculiarity was the vapor. In many localities it descended to the earth from high in the atmosphere; but at one point the vapors, at about nine o'clock, were seen rising from the springs and lowlands; one column in particular was noticed rapidly ascending far above the highest hills, where it spread into a large white cloud and sailed off to the westward; a second cloud formed in the same way, from the same springs, but did not rise as high as the first, and a third formed fifteen minutes afterward. At a quarter of ten the uppermost cloud was of a reddish hue, the second was green, indigo, and blue, and the third was almost white.

So unwholesome was this vapor that small birds were suffocated in it; and many of them were so frightened and stupefied that they flew into the houses, adding to the fears of ignorant people, who considered it a bad sign for a bird to enter a dwelling.

The commencement of the darkness was between ten and eleven o'clock in the forenoon (when the men were busy in the fields and offices and workshops, the women spinning, weaving, and preparing dinner, and the children at school, or helping their fathers and mothers at home), and it continued until the middle of the following night; but the degree of darkness varied; in some places the disk of the sun was visible when the darkness was the most dense.

Lights were seen burning in all the houses, and the people passing out-of-doors carried torches and lanterns, which were curiously reflected on the overhanging clouds.

Thousands of people were sure that the end of the world had come; many dropped their work and fell on their knees to pray; others confessed to their fellows the wrongs they had done, and endeavored to make restitution.

The meeting-houses were crowded, neighborhood prayer-meetings were formed, and the ministers and old church-members prayed long prayers, mentioning the nations and individuals of Bible times who had been destroyed on account of their sins, and begging that as God spared the great city of Nineveh when it repented, so he would forgive them, cheer them again by the light of the sun, and give victory to their armies.

It is said that the Connecticut Legislature being in session, the members became terrified when they could not see each other's faces, and a motion was made to adjourn, when Mr. Davenport arose and said:—

“Mr. Speaker, it is either the day of Judgment or it is not. If it is not, there is no need of adjourning; if it is, I desire to be found doing my duty. I move that candles be brought, and that we proceed to business.”

All the shivering, frightened people now began to look forward to evening, hoping that, as the moon arose full at nine o'clock, her light would penetrate the gloom; but all the children who coaxed to sit up and see her, grew very sleepy, and their strained eyes were not rewarded by her beautiful beams, for at eight in the evening the darkness was total; one could not distinguish between the earth and the heavens, and it was impossible to see a hand before one's face.

Then all the weary children were sent to bed, after the most honest prayers that they had ever prayed; and the old people sat up to watch for the light that had never before appeared so glorious.

And never dawned a fairer morning than the 20th of May; for the sun that opened the flowers and mirrored itself in the dew-drops, brought the color again to the children's faces and filled every heart with confidence. The birds sang joyously, the cattle returned to their pastures, the places of business were opened, and every one went about his work more gentle toward man and more grateful toward God.

After the darkness was past, several persons traveled about to gather all possible information concerning this memorable day, and Dr. Tenney wrote an account of what he learned while on a journey from the East to Pennsylvania. He says the deepest darkness was in Essex county, Mass., the lower part of New Hampshire, and the eastern portion of Maine (where my great-grandmother lived.) In Rhode Island and Connecticut it was not so great; in New Jersey peculiar clouds were observable, but the darkness was not uncommon; and in the lower parts of Pennsylvania nothing unusual was observed.

The darkness extended as far north as the American settlements and westward to Albany, but its exact limits could not be ascertained. In Boston it continued fourteen or fifteen hours, varying in duration at other places.

As it was impossible to attribute the darkness to an eclipse, the wise people formed many theories respecting it, being convinced that it was due to immense fires in the woods, winds blowing in opposite directions, or to the condition of the vapors; but Herschel says: “The dark day in Northern America was one of those wonderful phenomena of Nature which will always be read of with interest, but which philosophy is at a loss to explain.”—Ella A. Drinkwater, in St. Nicholas.