Heralds of the Morning
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indicate that the darkness was consonant with Scriptural prophecy....
The darkness was most dense shortly after eleven o’clock.”—The
Essex Antiquarian, April, 1899, vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 53, 54. “In most
parts of the country it was so great in the daytime, that the people
could not tell the hour by either watch or clock, nor dine, nor manage
their domestic business, without the light of candles....
“The extent of this darkness was extraordinary. It was observed
as far east as Falmouth. To the westward it reached to the farthest
part of Connecticut, and to Albany. To the southward, it was observed
along the seacoasts; and to the north as far as the American settle-
ments extend.”—William Gordon, History of the Rise, Progress, and
Establishment of the Independence of the U.S.A., vol. 3, p. 57.
The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two
before evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though
it was still obscured by the black, heavy mist. “After sundown, the
clouds came again overhead, and it grew dark very fast.” “Nor was
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the darkness of the night less uncommon and terrifying than that of
the day; notwithstanding there was almost a full moon, no object was
discernible but by the help of some artificial light, which, when seen
from the neighboring houses and other places at a distance, appeared
through a kind of Egyptian darkness which seemed almost impervious
to the rays.”—Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy; or, American Oracle
of Liberty, vol. 10, No. 472 (May 25, 1780). Said an eyewitness of
the scene: “I could not help conceiving at the time, that if every lumi-
nous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable shades,
or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more
complete.”—Letter by Dr. Samuel Tenney, of Exeter, New Hampshire,
December, 1785 (in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections,
1792, 1st series, vol. 1, p. 97). Though at nine o’clock that night the
moon rose to the full, “it had not the least effect to dispel the deathlike
shadows.” After midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon,
when first visible, had the appearance of blood.
May 19, 1780, stands in history as “The Dark Day.” Since the time
of Moses no period of darkness of equal density, extent, and duration,
has ever been recorded. The description of this event, as given by
eyewitnesses, is but an echo of the words of the Lord, recorded by the
prophet Joel, twenty-five hundred years previous to their fulfillment: