On May 19, 1780, the alarm went out from concerned residents in Rupert, Vermont, first.
No, this time it wasn’t bands of marauding British soldiers, so why in the world were the people of Vermont so on edge you might ask, and I’m glad you did, because May 19, 1780, dawned without light. In fact, for the whole of May 19 until halfway through the following night the sun refused to show its face and the moon burned red.
Sounding the alarm
Most are familiar with the song, “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow,” as sung by the charming redhaired orphan Annie from the Broadway musical and movies, but what if it doesn’t?
For the people living in New England on May 19, 1780, it didn’t.
Expecting a sunrise of brilliant gold, oranges, and pinks to be streaked across the sky, Vermonters awoke instead to fog, shadows, and darkness.
Between the hours of 10 and 11 a.m., reports began flooding in from Cambridge and Westborough, Mass., indicating the darkness was spreading.
By 2 p.m., full blackness blanketed Ipswich, Mass., requiring residents to light candles, or carry a lantern, to see inside their homes or traverse city streets.
According to records, Harvard College reported descending into blackness at 10:30 a.m., its height at 12:45 p.m., and partially lifting by 1:10 p.m. It is further reported the college experienced continued shade throughout the day. Barnstable, Mass., reported the darkness arriving there at 2 p.m., with full obscurity being reached by 5:30 p.m.
All told, New England’s dark day extended from parts of Eastern Canada, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey—affecting areas as far north as Portland, Maine, and stretching southwards to New Jersey, where it seems to have abruptly stopped, as no reports exist of the phenomenon ever being witnessed in Pennsylvania.
Eyewitness accounts state the animal population was as thrown for a loop over the phenomena as we humans, apparently roosters crowed, frogs croaked, and other creatures seem to react as though they too were unsure what time of day—or night—it actually was. In addition to the intense shade, witnesses reported smelling a strong sooty odor pervading the affected areas. Standing rainwater was even reported to contain a light film made up of particles eventually determined to be from burnt leaves and ash.
Joseph Plumb Martin, a Revolutionary War soldier who witnessed the event, described the effect the strange phenomenon had on the animal population, reporting:
“We were here [New Jersey] at the time the “dark day” happened, it has been said that the darkness was not so great in New-Jersey as in New-England. How great it was there I do not know, but I know that it was very dark where I then was in New-Jersey; so much so that the fowls went to their roosts, the cocks crew and the whip-poor-wills sung their usual serenade; the people had to light candles in their houses to enable them to see to carry on their usual business; the night was as uncommonly dark as the day was.”
Static in the atmosphere
In the days before the darkness came, many New Englanders reported witnessing an angry red sun shining down on them from a sickly yellow sky.
While the darkness was present, the moon appeared, but it was not a comforting sight; the moon glowing over portions of New England the night of May 19, 1780, was the color of blood.
Possible explanations
Theories abound from the religious, the supernatural, and the scientific, but most now believe New England’s “Great and Terrible Dark Day” was a result of weather phenomena caused by local wildfires burning in the area.
River and rainwater samples taken from during the time of darkness revealed the presence of soot, signifying smoke. The moon turning blood red is also indicative of particles stirred up and thickened by smoke—when air molecules hit the atmosphere, light scatters, filtering out most of the blue light, resulting in red light—ergo, blood-red moon.
Digging up further evidence supporting wildfires as the cause, investigators have studied tree rings from the period, learning from their growth ring patterns the dates of past traumas, such as from a wildfire. Yes, even plants come with baggage, apparently!
What is this sorcery?
Tree rings, or growth rings that form each year of the tree’s life are etched in a circular pattern into the trunk, making it possible for researchers to date these traumas and according to rings from trees present for the day of darkness in Algonquin Provincial Park, in Ontario, Canada, the trees were feeling the burn in 1780.
Weather reports from the day also predicted rain, suggesting the presence of thick cloud cover, further enhancing the potential for an intense blackout.