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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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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Eva Blocker | February 11, 1893 | at J. P. Wrights Plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Eva Blocker. . .came to her death by accidental burning |
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Simon | slave | December 24, 1830 | at the house of Mrs. Mary Moore, Spartanburg County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that. . .he was burnt to death by accident in one of the the Negro houses of Mrs. Mary Moore |
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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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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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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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Angus McQueen | January 17, 1816 | at home of Kelly McDermit, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the deceased came to his Death by the combined effects of Cold, Intoxication, and the falls he had therefrom. |
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Hattie Smalls | at C.B. Blair's, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, That Hattie Smalls, in manner and form aforsaid came to her death by having burned[?] to death accidently |
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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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Jesse | May 15, 1850 | at Lyles Ford on the Broad River, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the negro man came to his dead by drowing or accident to the Jurors unknown |
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Austin Putnam | July 14, 1867 | at Spencer Mills, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Austin Putnam came to his death by drowning, by mischance or accident, on said Spencer's Mill - pond about 4 oclock P.M. |
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Louisa McKeown | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
John Madison Winburn | April 21, 1887 | at J. C. Winburn's, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said John Madison Winburn came to his death by Accidental drowning at J. C. Winburns Still |
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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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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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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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William Hutchins | December 9, 1840 | at Equilla Burns's[?], Spartanburg County, SC |
on oath that we believe that said child comes to his death by accident of falling or slipping in [the Maple Swamp] creek and being drowned near Wm. Smith's mill |
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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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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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Adam Davis | February 5, 1841 | at or near John B. Bailey's, Union County, SC |
uppon our oaths do say that we think the said Adam Davis came to his death by accidently falling into the fire when intoxicated |
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Elliott Wilson | at A.W. Ladds', Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say he was killed by a tree being accidentally fell upon him |
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Unknown | March 26, 1877 | at James McGill's, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said child came to its death by being accidently overlain by its Mother, and was smothered to death. |
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Male Infant | Male Infant | March 20, 1884 | at the Jeff Sumerel place, Laurens County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say; that the deceased male infant came to his death by suffocation or mischance. . . |
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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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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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Delila Tucker | July 31, 1835 | at the house of Isaac M Caffertys, Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said Delila Tucker came to her death by [?] from the wounds probably caused by a fall from a fence |
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Furman Smith | December 16, 1874 | at Snow Hill, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the said William Smith & Furman Smith came to their death by misfortune or accidently being burned |
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Mattie Woods | at Jim[?] Sawyer's, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oath do say That from the evidence of Dr J E Douglass we conclude the deceased came to its death by a blow on full[?] on its head, caused by the carelessness of children left to attend to it who are not legally reponsible. |
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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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W. W. Miller Sr. | white man | July 10, 1891 | at J M. Mays place, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the Deceased came to his death from Heart failure and Exposure |
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Frank Young | in Fairfield County, South Carolina, Fairfield County, SC |
We find that the deceased Frank Young came to his death by accidental drowning |
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Joseph B. Hughes | August 6, 1869 | at the late residence of Joseph B. Hughes in Flat Rock Township, Flat Rock, S.C., Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Joseph B. Hughes came to his death ... from a wound in the back of the right shoulder ... by a falling tree |
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John Maddox | June 15, 1881 | at Williamston, Anderson County, SC |
do say that the aforesaid John Madox came to his death by his own act of going into the Saluda in said county^ River and getting drowned. |
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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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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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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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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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Rachiel Mitchel | June 21, 1881 | at J. R Corleys, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say George Mitchel and his Daughter Rachiel Mitchel Came to their Deaths. . .by a Burn Caused from the Explosion of Kerosene oil |
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Henry | July 6, 1834 | at the house of John Holly, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that they believe said Henry came to his death by going in to little river to wash or bathe himself it happened that accidently casually and by misfortune he the said Henry suffocated and drowned |
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J. B. Deas | February 6, 1936 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that J. B. Deas received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Single Barrell Shot gun in the hands of Durant Easterling & Sinclair Sellers |
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George Mitchel | June 21, 1881 | at J. R Corleys, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say George Mitchel and his Daughter Rachiel Mitchel Came to their Deaths. . .by a Burn Caused from the Explosion of Kerosene oil |
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Henry | November 24, 1851 | at J.H. Dillards, Laurens County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that the Slave Henry came to his Death by Accidental Drowning. |
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James W. Craven | October 12, 1830 | at the Tumbling shoals, Laurens County, SC |
A jury being summoned and sworn do find that the said James V Craven came to his death by Accidentally having been drowned in the river. |
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Archie Oliver | May 9, 1909 | at the home of J. P. Thurman, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, so say: That the said Archie Oliver came to his death by a gun shot wound in the head= said gun being at the time in the hands of Willis Thurman said sun being discharged accidentally = without any effort of the said Willis Thurman = he at the time not knowing that the gun was loaded |
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Thomas D. Cook | April 10, 1854 | at Stover's Ferry on Savannah River, Anderson County, SC |
do say that Thomas D. Cook came to his death by accidental drowning |
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Kate | slave | December 5, 1847 | at the house of Mrs. Jane Love, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that they believe from the testimony of Jas. Love son that she came to her death by the falling of a tree accidentally upon her body |
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Washington | negro man | February 1, 1857 | at Pullok[?], Union County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that they believe Decsd Came to his death by misfortune though intoxication & exposure to rain & cold |
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Marim Evans Hudson | July 28, 1942 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Marim Evans Hudson received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by a pistol accidently discharged in the hands of Ira W. Boun, Jr. |
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Thomas | child of Thomas M Chandler | September 11, 1850 | at Thos M. Chandler's house, and at the old Pottery, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that the deceased came to his death on the 8th ist by accidental drowning |
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Cap Bryan | February 25, 1893 | at the plantation of Mrs Doziers, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths aforesaid do say That the aforesaid Cap Bryan came to his death from a lick with a rock thrown by a blast from the Quary which we consider purely accidental |