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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Silas Cockrum | April 28, 1858 | at Jacks Bridge, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say, that he was drowned near Jacks Bridge in Reedy river in said District, by accident or mischance |
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Eddie Summer | August 6, 1881 | Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths ... do say that the said Eddie Summer came to his death ... from gun shot wounds received in the right side discharged accidentally |
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Tom | slave | October 25, 1859 | at the residence of Joseph Murphy, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Tom [a] slave of Joseph Murphy came to his death by a fall from a log and broke his neck |
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Ned | December 12, 1835 | at Joel Dendys, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their oaths the deceased came to his death by the Effects of Cold and other causes not Known. |
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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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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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Sallie Holmes | December 20, 1893 | at D. P. Bodies[?], Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that. . .the said Sallie Holmes aforesaid came to her death from accidental burning |
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Angus Jefferson Smith | June 4, 1874 | at Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Angus Jefferson Smith came to his death by accidental drowning in a water course known as Lawson's Fork 1 /12 miles distant from Spartangburg C.H. |
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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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John Johnson | March 2, 1814 | at the plantation of John Mitchel, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the sd. John Johnson came to his death on the night of the 26th February last, by Drowning |
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H. T.[?] Davis | at Alston, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the Said H T[?] Davis came to his death by having his back broken in some unknown manner to the Jury[.] |
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Sam Malloy | May 30, 1899 | at Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
From the evidence I got from the party's there the deceased was accidentaly drowned |
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Smith T. T. Richboury | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
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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Infant of Rick Rogers | Infant of Rick Rogers | June 11, 1895 | at J.B. Buchannon's place, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the said infant child came to its death from being accidently smothered in bed |
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W. H. Davis | November 1, 1940 | at Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that W. H. Davis received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by gun shot in the hands of self-inflicted accidentally |
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Adam Hempley | February 1, 1853 | near Wilson Wingo's, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that they believe it. . .was caused by the falling of a limb from a tree he cut down himself |
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Martin Wheeler | November 3, 1889 | on the plantation of Thos L Badgett, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say "that he came to his death from the Explosion of Mr Badgetts Boiler." |
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Hattie Brown | March 30, 1880 | on plantation of Mrs. Frances Yongue, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the same Hattie & Mattie Brown in manner and form aforesaid came to their deaths by misfortune, the assistance of fire on March 29th, 1880. |
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William Hampton | July 3, 1877 | at T. J. [?], Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Wm A Hampton came to his death by the accidental discharge of his gun in his own hands |
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Charles Hobbs | October 1, 1817 | on the highway near John Blacks, Laurens County, SC |
Do say uppon there oaths after hearing all the Evidence that cold [sic] be obtained that it is there oppinion that through Intoxication he fell from his hors [sic] and Sufficated [sic] in the mud and watter as it was a Night of Very hard Rain and he was found in a hollow and partly covered with mud and the same. |
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Elizabeth Tillatson | January 17, 1878 | at Frances Turner's, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said P. Elizabeth Tillatson came to her death at the house of Frances Turner ... from fire, occurring in the house where she lived |
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Hanah | infant Child | November 2, 1861 | at Cooperville, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say . . .the child was found dead . . .from bieng overlaid by its parents or some other unknown means to them in bed |
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Harcolas | slave, negro man | November 18, 1842 | at an old house Standing in the plantation of Mrs. Susannah Turners, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that . . .they do believe that from Exposure age and a burn which he had received some days previous was the cause of his death |
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Sandy McNair | December 14, 1878 | at Peter Ingrahams, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say- That the said Sandy McNair came to his death by exposure to cold, producing congestion of the lungs and the internal organs; and that deceased died on the night of the 12th inst. |
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Cland Elam | child | March 17, 1892 | at A. J. Norris Place, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say that the Child Came to its death from a wound inflicted by fire accidentily |
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Elmer Brookfield | March 17, 1936 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Elmer Brookfield received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Shot Gun in the hands of Woodroe McQunn |
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George Craig | January 19, 1825 | at the house of Mathew Richmond, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that, according evidence and their own belief a tree which he assisted to cutdown, by misfortune fell on him and broke his scull on the evening of the 18th. |
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Thomas Yongue | near Strother, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say: That the said Tomas Yongue came to his death from accidental burning |
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infant | June 8, 1828 | house of Jessee Husk, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths. . . that after carefully examining the dead body of the s'd male child of the s'd Martha Gibson ... are all agreed that the s'd child died by the visitation of God but by the blood being [?]led in large spots to be seen through the skin all on his left side from his face to his foot they thought it was probable s'd child might have eat some poisonous herbs or berries of the woods as s'd Husk had settled in the woods |
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M. D. Smith | December 24, 1906 | at W. K. Sellars, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the said M.D. Smith Came to his death by burns by fire. |
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negro Child | negro Child | August 27, 1849 | at James C. Mingo, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say . . .that the said child was axcidently or negligently Smothered and killed by its mother in her Sleep |
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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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John Ronnie | February 15, 1898 | Kershaw County, SC | |||
John Benjamin | October 16, 1893 | at a mill in Cross Hill, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that John Benjamin did come to his death by misfortune or accident. |
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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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Jack | slave [runaway] | November 21, 1835 | at Andersonville, Anderson County, SC |
do say that Elias E. Harrison ... a certain gun of the value of seven dollars then and there charged with gun powder and leaden buck shot, which he the said Elias E. Harrison then and there had and held in both is hands, then and there accidently and by misfortune and against the will of him the said Elias E. Harrison discharged and....and shot out of the said gun him the said negro man in and upon the right arm, shoulder and back of the head....ten wounds with said shot, which were mortal wounds |
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Sally Shedd | February 19, 1867 | at the plantation of James Coleman, Fairfield County, SC |
the Jury after hearing the evidence in the cause of the death of Sally Shed and examined the dead Body. Come to the conclusion that the Said Sally came to her death by the discharge of a gun in the hands of the Girl Rachel, by accident. |
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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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Evans Campbell | March 14, 1892 | at Rhett Copelands, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Evans Campbell came to his death by Accident or Misfortune, By the burning of the house he was in |
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Samuel | Negro Man | Anderson County, SC |
the Decd had been missing ever since Sunday. . .he would search the Mill pond as he had been seen in the neighborhood?and found him floating on the water in the pond about 12 feet from the Dam. . .That he knew of no enemy the Decd had had never heard of any threats--thought it was accidental. |
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Jack Thomas | at Mickles Ferry, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that the said, Jack Thomas, came to his death by accidental drownding |
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Hannah Lee | March 7, 1893 | at Moor Church, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the deceased came to her death from natural causes |
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H. C. Rudisail | December 31, 1881 | at Campobello, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say taht the said H. C. Rudisail deceased came to his death by apoplexy caused from over work by violent exertion of the body |
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James McCannon | May 1, 1821 | at Joseph Hughes, Union County, SC |
say on our oths that the said James McCannon did come to his death by the act of God . . .by attmting to Crose a Creek by the name of Hughs Creek and was forthwith drownded |
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Augustus Johnson | December 17, 1885 | Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
Wee as sworn of in quest Believe Come to his Deth By Acdent |
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Amelia A. Alexander | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Amelia A. Alexander came to her death by accidental drowning in the millpond of A.H. Boykin. . .by sinking of a Flat caused by the weight of between fifty-three & fifty-six persons |
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Toby | negro man | July 10, 1844 | near Bauskett Bridge on Stevens Creek, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say the said negro man Toby came to his death by accidental drowning |
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Bob | May 31, 1831 | at Rocky Mount, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that he came to his death by being accidentally drowned in the Catawba River at Rocky Mount Ferry |
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Ida Suber | at Lyles Ford, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Ida Suber and Sallie Belle Suber came to their deaths by accidently burning to death from[?] carelessness of their mother. |