1816: The year without summer
Vermont saw a religious revival, as people believed a higher power was at play.
BENNINGTON - The year 1816 has long been known as the year without summer. Vermonters still call it “1800 and Froze to Death,” a year of frosts every month, dark skies, and mysterious lights that caused a widespread belief that a higher power was displeased.
Howard Coffin will discuss the year without a summer and its impact on Vermont in an in-person, free program at the Bennington Museum, presented by the Bennington Historical Society, on Sunday, March 20, from 2 to 3 pm. This talk includes scores of anecdotes about the dark year of failed crops, scarce food, and religious revival. The horrible weather also came in the aftermath of the War of 1812, which produced shortages and an economic crisis.
A seventh-generation Vermonter, Coffin is the author of four books on the Civil War: “Something Abides: Discovering the Civil War in Today’s Vermont”; “Full Duty: Vermonters in the Civil War”; “Nine Months to Gettysburg”; and “The Battered Stars,” as well as “Guns Over the Champlain Valley,” a book on military sites along the Champlain Corridor.
Bennington Museum requires the use of a face mask that covers both the mouth and the nose. For more information visit https://benningtonmuseum.org.
