Abraham Davenport gained fame for preventing the Connecticut legislature from adjourning during this event, requesting that candles be brought instead. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this event that many New Englanders interpreted as the Day of Judgement. This event caused Mother Ann Lee’s Shakers to begin preaching publicly.
ANSWER: The Dark Day of 1780 [or New England’s Dark Day]
[10e] The most likely explanation for the Dark Day of 1780 is that it was caused by one of these events. Another of these events in Chicago was supposedly started by a cow owned by Catherine O’Leary.
ANSWER: fire [accept forest fire]
[10m] One record of the Dark Day comes from this letter writer’s correspondence with James Lovell. A proposal by this writer was met with a response that it would create a “despotism of the petticoat.”
ANSWER: Abigail Adams [prompt on Adams]
<Benjamin McAvoy-Bickford, American History>