Accident
Accidents were the leading cause of death in the CSI:D sample, and drowning was the leading cause of death among mortal accidents. There are myriad reasons why. Broad swaths of the American public did not know how to swim. Primary modes of transportation, especially early in the century, involved river routes. Mill ponds were prevalent. Children played outside—generally a good thing but occasionally a sad one. Perhaps the saddest of these incidents involved a mass May Day drowning at Boykin Mill Pond in 1860. Twenty-eight teenagers set off on a raft that hit a snag and more than twenty-five drowned, including all five children from one family. Sadder still may be the case of Noah Wesley Dawkins. In mid-June 1888, Dawkins and his friends, all African Americans, set off for a local watering hole where they ran into three white boys, one of whom offered Dawkins fifty cents if he would walk into a particular area in the creek, assuring him it wasn’t deep. It was deep, and Dawkins drowned. It is tempting to classify this as a homicide, but it is clear from testimony that the white children thought they were playing a cruel trick, not a deadly one.
Alcohol was such a critical indirect cause in so many of the accidental drownings, shootings, fires, and falls in CSI:D that it really ought to be regarded the deadliest force in nineteenth century South Carolina. In addition to these indirect roles, alcohol was the direct cause of accidental death in more than sixty cases. It was probably also a direct cause in many of the ‘exposure’ cases—bodies that were discovered outside and were thought to have died from exposure to the elements.
Nineteenth century law enforcement had no recourse to blood-alcohol tests. Even today, determining precise BACs postmortem, and working back from those to levels of inebriation at time of death, is fraught with difficulty. This meant that nineteenth-century coroners had to rely exclusively on witness testimony and the known habits of the deceased to determine alcohol’s role in producing death. Standing around a dead man, jurors found themselves passing judgment on just how drunk he had been the night before. According to witnesses, John Goodlett “seemed to be drunk.” John Agner was “sorry he was drunk.” Abe Waganan was “very funny & lively”—very drunk as [was] his custom.” Is ‘very drunk’ drop-dead drunk? It is hard to know. On the night of January 15, 1816, Angus McQueen drank more than half a gallon of spirits. “The dec’d was very much intoxicated,” noted one witness, “and fell down four times during which time he vomited upon the carpet.” Because McQueen kept getting up and falling down, the jurors determined that the falls (and the winter cold) contributed to his demise, though it is equally possible that McQueen died of alcohol poisoning. Juries were more likely to fix upon ‘intemperance’ as a clear cause of death if the deceased was a notorious addict. In December 1842, H. P. Church was discovered by his land-lady sprawled half on and half off of his bed. A “habitual drunkard” who had been continuously drinking for two weeks, she did not even bother to try and shake him awake. The inquest did not hesitate in finding that Church had died of intoxication.
The third leading cause of accidental deaths were ‘vehicular’ accidents, a catch-all category that includes drunken falls from a train and sober buckings from a horse. Further complicating this picture is the fact that many of the drownings probably belong in this category. There is little difference between falling unwitnessed off of a train and off of a boat, except that in one case you land on tracks and are quickly found where in the other you wash downstream, far from the site of the accident.
Bartholomew Darby was thrown from the saddle and hit his head on a stump, his wagon then “running over his head ... & breaking his neck & deeply cutting him under the right ear.” Steve Yeldell fell out of his cart and broke his neck.
All such accidents pale in comparison to the staggering mortality brought to South Carolina by train. Richard Springs was “run over by a train.” Fannie Ford was “run over by a train.”A slave named Sam was “Run over by [a] train.” Almost as soon as trains arrived in these counties, there were sots to fall off of them, laborers to be crushed by them, and depressives to jump in front of them. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a technological innovation responsible for a sharper uptick in the per capita death rate. It is also clear that coroners and inquest juries were unprepared for the level of bodily violence meted out by train. The body of a slave named Berry was “very much mashed and limbs and bones severed.” William Abbott’s body was “mangled, bruised, cut and crushed.” Even so coroners and their juries were often at pains to absolve the railroad itself of any wrong-doing. Hosea Jackson “came to his death by his own carelessness and from no carelessness whatever on the part of the engineer.” The crushing of William Roberts was likewise “not caused by any dereliction of duty on the part of the rail-road employees.” With train accidents we see for the first time the question of corporate responsibility, and potential corporate liability, creeping into the inquest process.
The larger point, however, is a physical one. Moving the body at a faster speed than the body was designed to go is an enormous convenience that has to be paid for. Today vehicular accidents (car, motorcycle, and all-terrain-vehicle) are the fourth-leading cause of death among Americans after heart disease, cancer, and stroke. The nineteenth century was not particularly different, except that families moved by horse, wagon, and train—and died less often of cancer.
The fourth leading cause of accidental death in the CSI:D sample involved the discharge of firearms. Some were simple cases of men who were cleaning or handling weapons that suddenly went off. The vast majority of cases, however, involve an unfortunate bystander. In 1849, Tilman Attaway was mistaken for a turkey by his hunting buddy. In 1808, James Spradley was leaning in to watch two dogs fight over a dead deer. Fourteen-year old George Nettles sought to break up the dogs by bashing one of them with the butt of his gun. Instead the gun discharged into Spradley’s face. As this case attests, guns and children made as disastrous a pairing then as they do now. In 1820 ten-year old Mancel King accidentally shot and killed his brother. In 1899 ten-year old John McManus shot and killed his friend. “I was fooling with the pistol and it went off,” he told the inquest.
Undoubtedly some of these gun-related ‘accidents’ were not accidents at all. A dead man alone in a room might have been cleaning his gun, or he might have harbored hidden miseries. Similarly some of the accidental misfires on bystanders were probably intentional homicides. Unless new evidence emerges at this late date, however, such cases will have to remain categorized as accidents.
The fifth leading cause of death by accident in the CSI:D sample was death by suffocation—another category that speaks more to what a coroner was called to investigate than to what people actually died from. A majority of the ‘smothering’ deaths were probably SIDS victims. In white households such cases would not have been investigated—infant mortality was relatively high in the period and a white family’s ‘dear pledges’ were often ‘recalled to God.’ But in a society where every enslaved child was as potentially valuable as a Lexus, infant death in the quarter was more rigorously investigated. Coupled with deep prejudices against enslaved mothers, inquests typically found that an unnamed “negro Child” was “negligently Smothered” by its mother, or that the enslaved child Lora was “accidentally smothered” in the family bed, or that the enslaved children Henry and Alcy were crushed in the night, having being “overlaid” by their parents. It is possible that such ‘negligence’ did occur among overworked and overtired slaves, and such findings were far preferable to those cases where enslaved parents were charged with infanticide.
The sixth leading cause of death by accident in the CSI:D sample was death by fire. Most homes in the period were made of wood. Most had fireplaces. None had a fire extinguisher. Fire was light and life, but it was also occasionally death. In 1866 a freedman named Sloan was burnt to death in a gin house. In 1890 a child named Julia Hightower wandered too close to the family fireplace. Her younger sister tried to dowse her with water to no avail.
These six types of accidental death—drowning, alcohol abuse, transportation mishaps, gun miscues, suffocations, and fires—account for 75% of the accidental deaths in the CSI:D sample. Other relatively common accidents involved falling trees and limbs, industrial accidents, and poisonings and overdoses. Rounding out the sample were accidents that were more unique. Home alone, Medora Williams had an epileptic seizure and fell into her own fireplace. Traveling with the Bailey & Company circus, George West was gored by his own elephant. (Some might not consider this an ‘accident’ since the elephant had ‘cause’; and acted with ‘intent.’)
NEXT: Natural Causes
Accident Inquests
Name | Deceased Description | Date | Inquest Location | Death Method | Inquest Finding |
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infant slave | infant slave | December 30, 1857 | at Isaac Gregorys house, Union County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that . . . it came to its death by accidental overLaying or strangling by the mothers breast |
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James Spradley | August 19, 1808 | near Sander's Creek, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that ... the said James Spradley happening to be close behind the said George Nettles looking at the dogs afighting received the contents of the said gun consisting of a load of powder and buck shot in his forehead just over his left eye which shot shot away a considerable part of his skull and brains [and] in one hour after his receiving the said wound, [he] died of the same |
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Henry Henderson | March 19, 1850 | at Henry Hendersons, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oathes Do Say that the Said Henry Henderson came to his Death by accidentally fawling in to a Branch near his house while under mental Derangement on the 17th day of March about ten oclock at Knight [sic] and that Henry Henderson in manner and form aforesaid came to his death by Misfortune or accidental Drowning. |
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Ed Glover | July 8, 1882 | at Poore House, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oathes do say He Came to his Death by and from the affects produced by a gun shot wound inflicted by Samuel Garner in the Calf of his right leg |
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Robert Burns | February 3, 1873 | at Alston, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death by axidental Drowning |
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Lewis Bradley | Laurens County, SC |
we the jury find in our opinion that Lewis Bradlet Died in Laurens County on the 29th day of Decr. 1894 from great Exposure in the [extreme?] cold, and that no one is to blame as far as we know, for his death. |
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Kitty Young | near Rock City, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the said Kity Young came to her death from a pistol shot wound, the pistol being fired by her little brother Johnnie Young, and that the shooting was purely accidental. |
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Saul | slave | January 9, 1833 | at Cowpen Furnace, Spartanburg County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said Saul did unfortunately and accidentally fall from the dam or bridge |
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Lusindy Gainey | November 15, 1893 | at Spring Hill, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon there oath do say that Lusindy Gainey deceast Come to his deth By Being in Sane and getting lost in the Swamp and getting wet in the cold and come to death |
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Edmund Cleveland | December 4, 1871 | at Spartanburg Court House, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that sd. deceased came to his death by the falling of the wall of Duncan's new building in the town of Spartanburg |
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Enoch McLean | August 27, 1840 | at Wm C. Brown's, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say . . .came to his death by misfortune or accident |
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Robert Butler | boy | July 12, 1868 | at Robert Butler's, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death accidentally by being cought in the gearney of a thrashing[?] [?] |
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Elleck | free boy | December 13, 1866 | at Johnathan Gregorys, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there Oaths do say that he came to his death by the accidental discharge of a Gun. . .that Elleck free boy in manner and form aforesaid came to his death by accident |
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Leander Pack | August 14, 1883 | at the residence of Elias Atkins, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Leander Pack came to his death ... by a blow of a fallen tree of which the decased were cutting |
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Charles | negro boy | March 7, 1857 | at Archy Clark residence, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say. . .he came to his death by lying down and going to sleep on the wet and cold ground and the Rain and water running over him |
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Female Infant of Milly Campbell | Female Infant of Milly Campbell | October 17, 1867 | at Laurens C.H., Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say - that it came to its death by accidental Suffocation. |
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Louisa Nettles | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
Seware[?] Stuart | November 4, 1893 | at J.[?] E. Griffiths, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Seware Stuart Came to his death by the accidental discharge of a 38 caliber Pistol, in the hands of William Griffith, holding by the brick[?] and seware Stuart carelessly playing with it, and said Pistol fired. . .it was intirely accidental |
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Aaron Rogers | May 14, 1872 | at Isham Johnson's Plantation, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That Aaron Rogers (the deceased) came to his death by accidental drowning in Thompson's Creek, below Purvis' Bridge, on Sunday the 12th May AD 1872 |
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George Darby | April 20, 1823 | at Lores-ford on broad River, Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that . . .the said George Dary came to his death by drowning while in a state of intoxication & making an effort to cross broad River at Lore's ford to some of the Islands |
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Chas. Youngue | at the plantation of Dr.[?] B. Estes, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that-Charles Youngue died from the effect of being drowned |
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Chaney Pilgrim | August 12, 1877 | at the plantation of James Anderson, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid Chaney Pilgrim came to her death while in the bed with her mother Julia Pilrim. . .from some cause or causes unknown to the jury |
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Jack | negro boy | May 14, 1852 | at the house of H. W. Posey, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oathes do say that the said negro boy Jack then and there voluntarily and feloniously himself did Kill by drowning in the mill pong |
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Zechariah Tottey | December 4, 1806 | at the Mill River, Union County, SC |
do say on their oaths that the said Totty Came to his Death we Belive By toxication[?] in [?] and [?] By haggs[?] in a [?] |
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J. McGee | September 4, 1879 | at Greenville, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that . . .the said J. H. McGee came to his death from a fall from a scaffold by misfortune or accident |
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Ben | February 12, 1840 | by the publick Road Leding from Mr. Gaydons[?] Store to Rocky Mount, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths [Ben came to his death] by being intoxicated and laying out in the cold of the night |
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Noah Wesley Dawkins | June 18, 1888 | at home of John Dawkins, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased came to his death by accidental drowning while in swimming |
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Sarah McCulley | wife of Barney McCulley | September 1, 1841 | at the house of Barney McCulley, Anderson County, SC |
do say that she the sd deceased died of violence on the night of 31 Augt 1841 in her own house & by her own husband Barney McCulley |
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Dick | slave | May 25, 1843 | at Camden boat yard, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the negro slave supposed to be Dick came to his death by drowning on Wednesday the 17th Instant at Camden boat yard |
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Hollan | April 29, 1856 | at Conwayboro, Horry County, SC |
Upon their Oaths do say, tha the said Girl Hollan came to her Death by accidental Drowning |
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Isaac Miller | at Thomas W. Rables[?], Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say the deceased came to his death by a tree falling on him accidently. |
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William Johnson | January 20, 1871 | at William Johnson's residence in Camden, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said William Johnson came to his death ... from a sudden attack of illness occasioned by his having eaten oysters which were probably tainted |
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Charly Washington | boy | November 22, 1891 | at the house of George Washington near Bauknights ferry, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say that the Said Charley Washington Came to his death by the accidental discharge of a pistol ball from the hands of James Bobo[?] |
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Sarah Farmer | July 14, 1878 | at Williams Goodwin Place, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say That the Said Sarah Farmer came to her death from a pistol shot taken affect just above the right Eye and that the pistol was supposed to be in the hands of the deceased and that it was accidental |
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Thomas Henry | October 20, 1817 | at the Dweling Hous of Samuel, Union County, SC |
do Say on their oaths tha Said Thomas Came to his Death By a [?] fall that Nathan[?] Howard [?] him By throwing him [?] his hous[?] in a [????] |
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John Owens | January 31, 1891 | at the Lem Williams place, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death on the 20th day of Jan by misfortune in a corn crib that was consumed by fire, from some cause unknown to this Jury. |
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Unknown | December 10, 1877 | at Alexander Harris', Fairfield County, SC |
do say that the deceased came to its death by being Smothered in bed. & that infant in manner and form afore-Said, came to its death by misfortune or accident |
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Ella Davis | at the dwelling house of Alice Simms, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Ella Davis, being a child of six years, and having been left alone in the dwelling house of said Alice Simms by the said Alice, the mother of said child, in the afternoon of the day aforesaid, no one being present and able to protect her, accidently took fire on her clothing and died from burning and suffocation[.] |
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Mrs. M. C. Williams | October 13, 1908 | [at] Mrs. Williams, Chesterfield County, SC |
Upon their oaths, do say: that the aforesaid Mrs. M.C. Williams did some to her death by a gun shot wound by George Williams . . . |
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Jeff Jackson | January 30, 1923 | [no location given], Chesterfield County, SC |
I do not find it necessary to hold a formal inquest in my Judgment Jeff Jackson come to his death by mischance with out blame of on the part of any being person |
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Fleetwood Moody | May 20, 1936 | at Patrick, Chesterfield County, SC |
Upon their oaths do say that Fleetwood Moody received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Burned in the hands of origin unknown . . . came to his death from burns and suffocation origin unknown |
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Adam Wood | December 5, 1880 | at Cowpens Station on the A&C Air Line R.R., Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that said deceased came to his death . . . by being run over or struck by the train on said road, receiving thereby such wounds as to cause his death |
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Tilman Attaway | April 14, 1849 | at the corner of the Oharer[?] old field, Edgefield County, SC |
Upon their oaths do say, that the said Tillman Attaway. . .was shot with a load of buck shot discharged from a gun, or pistol, and ... that he the said Samuel Webb Shot the said Tilman Attaway, with a doble barrel Shot gun accidently through a mistake for a Turkey |
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William Vaugh | August 28, 1842 | at the dweling house of Patrick Williams, Union County, SC |
adduced that William Vaughn came to his death by the fawling of a certain oak tree a part of which was found [?] his mangled limbs which had [?] shattered his Skull |
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O. P. Brown | October 27, 1851 | at Durbin Creek, Laurens County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that he died of a wound received by the fauling of an arch of the Bridge near J.W. Meadors across Durbin Creek which did dislocate his neck and bruise his shoulders and body |
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Unknown | June 26, 1856 | at a spot near the Wateree River and on or near the Road leading to Chesnut's Ferry, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that after such examination as was in their power to make they are clearly of opinion that the decased came to his death by falling into the ditch leading from Bolton's[?] Branch while in a state of intoxication and being unable to help himself was drowned |
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Isaac Oliphant | November 9, 1882 | at Ritch Thomson, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say the said Isaac Oliphant Came to his death by a Gun Shot Wound unfortunately or accidentally in his own hands |
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John Downey | February 26, 1873 | at Winnsboro, Fairfield County, SC |
We the undersigned Jurors, find the following verdict, That the Deceased, John Downey, cam to his death the twenty fifth day of February 1873. From rupture of the spleen caus by misfortune or accident |
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Abram Clement | October 6, 1868 | at Martin Williamston's residence, Anderson County, SC |
do say that the said deceased was killed by the falling of a limb from a tree which he had cut down near the old school house. |
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Mary Brown's infant | at William Brice's place, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that said infant came to its death by Accidental Suffocation. |