The Dark Day of May 19, 1780

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Oct 28, 1852

The Dark Day of May 19, 1780.

A FRIEND recently placed in our hands a letter, written more than seventy years ago by Dr. Caleb G. Adams, of Exeter, N. H., to General Nathaniel Folsom, of that town, who was at the time a member of the Provincial Congress at Philadelphia. In the following passage, that well-known phenomenon, the "Dark Day," which spread alarm, and in some cases, consternation through this part of the country, is described, with details which must prove deeply interesting to many of our readers. The letter is dated Exeter, May 26, 1780: Boston Journal.

"We had a very extraordinary phenomenon the 19th day of this month. In the morning it was rainy, till about nine o'clock, when the clouds broke away and the sun appeared, but very red. After nine the clouds grew very thick, with the wind from southwest, in light breezes; at half past ten it was uncommonly dark, the clouds appearing of a yellowish hue. At eleven the public school was dismissed, it being so dark that no person could read or write. It continued to grow darker till twelve, when it was so dark that we could not tell one person from another in a room with three large windows. In short, it was midnight darkness at noon-day! The fowls went to roost, and there was a strong smell of smoke. It had been very dry for a long time before, the wind having been at East for four or five days, which drove the smoke back to the westward, and when the wind shifted it brought it all down in a body, which, together with the dense clouds, caused the darkness, which lasted till three o'clock P. M. before it began to grow light."

"Thousands of people who could not account for it from natural causes, were greatly terrified, and indeed it cast a universal gloom on the earth. The frogs and night-hawks began their notes. At four o'clock the wind shifted to the north-east, which brought the clouds back, and at sunset it was again very dark. At nine o'clock it was darkness to be felt by more senses than one, as there was a strong smell of soot. Almost everybody who happened to be out in the evening, got lost in going home. The darkness was as uncommon in the night as it was in the day, as the moon had fulled the day before."—Advent Herald.