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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Friday | slave | October 6, 1830 | at the house of Robt Martin, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say . . .that the sd Friday a slave came to his death by accident . . .on tyson River by the water wheel of Gd[?] Mill catching him the sd Friday a slave between the arm of Gd[?] wheel and a sile near it |
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Charles | negro boy | November 14, 1842 | On Mr Thos Oliver's Plantation, at or near Said Oliver's residence, Edgefield County, SC |
Upon their oaths do say, that the boy Charles . . .came to his death by being burnt to death in an old house, accidently caught fire in some unknown or misterious way to us |
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Wyatt Harris | April 22, 1887 | at Limestone Springs, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Whay Harris was killed by accident at Limestone Springs ... by a rock thrown by a blast at Simon's works striking him on top of the head while he was at work at Richardson's kiln and killing his instantly |
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George Gardner | January 22, 1935 | in Chesterfield County, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that George Gardner received . . . mortal wound by Rifle Shot in the hand of Rance Cue some being unavoidable accident |
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unknown negro | unknown negro | May 15, 1837 | at the plantation of A. Murphy or Joseph Prins[?], Union County, SC |
Doo say upon their oaths that the sade unknown . . .dide by the visitation of God by getting Drowned in Tigor River |
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Lila Washington | February 20, 1879 | at Wesley Barns Mill, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Lila Washington came to her death by accident in catching on fire and Burning to death |
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Mary Love | January 17, 1876 | at Mrs. Clovers Spencers, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the said Mary Love came to here Death by being accidently burned |
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Eugenia Richardson | on James McGill's plantation, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that she was accidently over layed by her mother and smothered to death, and came to her death by misfortune or accident. |
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Dick Keith | January 6, 1877 | at George Lound's, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Dick Keith came to his death by freezing to his death from exposure to the cold |
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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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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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M. A. Lipscomb | March 11, 1880 | at late residence of David Lipscomb, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said deceased came to her death from hemorhage caused by premature labor, said labor produced by diarhea |
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[illegible] [illegible] | November 17, 1920 | at Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
We the Jurors find that the Cause to her death by Coming in Cantack with live wire [???] Light & [???] [???] |
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Elijah Sullivan | April 24, 1898 | at Cow-buel[?] place, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he died from heart failure and the falling of tree across him by accident |
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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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Jane | slave | April 16, 1849 | at John J. E. Gregory's, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths doo say that . . .the said Jane was accidently or unknowinly smuthered by her mother or some one Else in bead |
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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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Infant of Samuel Love | Infant of Samuel Love | November 16, 1887 | at Chesterfield C. H., Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the said infants came to their deaths by being accidentally burned on the 15th day of November A.D. 1887 |
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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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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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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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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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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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Ally Pollard | February 5, 1868 | on the farm of J.G. Mabury, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he froze to death while intoxicated in the public road near J.G. Mabury's |
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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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Benjamin Freeman | June 24, 1833 | at the home of Isaac Hill, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that. . .the sd. Benj. Freeman went into Tyger River a swimming or by some cause became drowned |
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Bill | negro boy | June 20, 1830 | at Capt. John Thomas Hooey on Broad River, Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that . . .the said boy came to his untimely death by accidentally getting drowned |
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Emma Hunter | May 18, 1892 | at Beaverdam Church, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths Do say from the Testimony given that Emma Hunter Died from the Effects of fire; That she died on Tesday the 17th inst having been burnt in a house, that was burnt down on the plantation of M.B. Pool on the night of the 16th inst. All Accidental... |
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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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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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Dock F. Miller | March 16, 1883 | Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths aforesaid do say that the aforesaid Dec'd ... came to his death by misfortune or accident |
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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. |
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James C. Wise | May 13, 1847 | at Camden, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death by accidental drowning |
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William Powers | January 14, 1828 | at John Powers, Union County, SC |
do Say upon their oathes . . .that the aforesaid Wm Powers came to his Deth by misfortune by Cuting a tree and falling on him |
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James L. Hill | January 10, 1867 | at James L Hills, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that the said James L Hill came to his death by Mischance or accident |
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Oscar Matthews | November 23, 1877 | at C.H.[?] Matthews', Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths say that the aforesaid Oscar Mathews came to his death on the 22nd day of November 1877 at the Mill dam by the accidental falling from the pear[?] trial[?] of the grist mill or from drowning after the fall unknown to the jury[.] |
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Infant Male Child of Mariah Owings | Infant Male Child of Mariah Owings | July 8, 1883 | at J.C. Rason's, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, That the said child came to its death on Friday 6th day of July in its mothers house from Suffocation, And so the Jurors aforesaid upon their oaths aforesaid, do say that the aforesaid child came to his death by misfortune or accident. |
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Sam | Slave | June 14, 1858 | at Henry Spiers[?], Edgefield County, SC |
who came to his death by drowning in Butlers Mill Pond |
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John Oaks | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
John Elmore | January 3, 1883 | at Aaron Elmore home on LE Foleys plantation, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said John Elmore came to his death by misfortune or accident |
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Willis Cumings | child | October 10, 1890 | at C. M. Lanhams, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Willis Cumings came to his death by a gun shot Wound in the hands of John Cumings by accident |
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Polly Henderson | December 28, 1876 | at James Mitchell's, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that deceased came to her death . . . by freezing through misfortune or accident |
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William Perry | January 7, 1894 | in the county and state aforesaid, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that the aforesaid William Perry came to his death from gun shot wound in the hands of Calib Hunter. . .said wound was accidental |
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Infant child of Amanda Williams | at the residence of Alex Cockerell, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say having viewed the dead body of Amanda Williams infant and heard the evidence of witnesses and this our verdict that it came to its death form congestion of the lungs. |
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Infant of Albert Davis | at Crosbyville, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say the cause of death was suffocation |
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Alfred Sowell | December 1, 1816 | Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said Alfred Sowell came to his death by misfortune, that is to say, but accidental firing of a smooth bored gun, being at the same time charged, which drove her charge of shot into the breast of the said Alfred Sowell |
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Thomas Rosseter[?] | August 30, 1852 | at Hamburg SC, Edgefield County, SC |
Upon their Oaths do say, that he, said Thos Rosseter came to his death by drowning . . .in the street in the town of Hamburg, during the high water Backed[?] out from the Savannah River |
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George | February 6, 1815 | at the plantation of Daniel Brag, Laurens County, SC |
doth say upon their oaths saith that on the 5th of this instant in crossing Enoree River got wash. Off his horse and got drowned. |
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Elijah | February 8, 1860 | at the house of D.r J. H. Norman, Horry County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Infant Slave "Elijah" the property of Eliza Jane Hughes (A Mintor) came to its death by accident by being overlain either by its mother or another child of hers |