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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John | April 23, 1859 | at the Residence of Dr. D A Richardson, Laurens County, SC |
upon there oaths do say. That the said slave John at the Residence of Daniel A Richardson on the 12th day of April in the afternoon came to his death, By accident the result of a fall producing a dislocation of the neck |
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Callen O'Neall | November 11, 1855 | at Luke Havirds[?], Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say, that the said Callen Oneall came to his death. . .By drinking too much liquor and supposed to have strangled to death by Throwing up |
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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. |
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John Cotton | March 15, 1826 | at the river bank in Mr. Jno. Nelson's field, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that on the second day January last that the said John Cotton came to his death by attempting to go to the shore from a boat that was lodged in the shoal near Jones Mills within said district and was drowned accidentally and not otherwise |
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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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colored | colored | May 9, 1872 | at Ja's Turner's, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said infant. . .came to its death by misfortunte or accident |
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Robert Willingham | October 6, 1876 | at the residence of Mrs. L.E. Kirkland, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Robert Willingham in manner [?] from aforesaid, came to his death by Smothering in a bank of dried[or seed?] cotton |
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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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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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Andy Yongue | Fairfield County, SC |
NO OFFICIAL STATEMENT |
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Blanchy Wilson | November 30, 1893 | on the plantation of Robert Hastings, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that at woods childs house. . .by a single barrel shot gun lying in the loft of said house and started to fall and Siche Chiles caught the gun and it struck the joist and fired |
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Sylvester Robins | September 20, 1883 | Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that said Sylvester Robbins came to his death ... from the effect of falling behind the bed and being caught by the chin and head between the railing of the bed and the wall of the house |
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Tom | negro man Slave | August 21, 1850 | at H. L. Maysons in Beach island, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the negro man Tom came to his death from being accidentally drowned in savanah river |
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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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John Oaks | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
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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Henry Castleberry | January 7, 1815 | at the house of James Hannah, Laurens County, SC |
Do say upon their Oaths, that the Deceased came to his Death by misfortune upon the fall of a horse on the Public road near the house of James Hannah. |
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John Wilkins | December 7, 1900 | at the Residence of C.F. Morrison, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon theair oaths do say that John Wilkins deceast came to his death By a pistol shot fired from his own hand acdential |
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Josephine A. Brookes Thrift | infant child | March 28, 1860 | at Delila Jenkinses, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say . . .that the child came to its death by being smothered by its mother by accident |
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James McCants | December 8, 1836 | at the residence of the deceased, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths, that he came to his death by the fall of a dead tree on fire, in his New Ground, about 12 oclock Meridian. |
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A. G. Howard | February 28, 1860 | at Grannet Ville Depot, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that. . .he came to his death by accident that is by being struck a falling pine tree which stood by the side of the road where he was passing which tree was burned down having caught fire from the burning of the woods around it |
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slave | slave | June 24, 1843 | at Thomas Holland's, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that according to evidence believe the said child was strangled to death by its mother's milk |
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William Foster | December 20, 1845 | at Bishop's old field, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death by freezing to death from being intoxicated |
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Rosa M. Smith | October 11, 1877 | at Spartanburg C.H., Spartanburg, S.C., Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Rosa M. Smith came to her death by means of accidental burning |
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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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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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Jim Mason | free man of color | January 9, 1850 | near the residence of William Poole, Anderson County, SC |
do say that he was of extremely intermperate habits, and altho there is no positive proof that he was drunk when last seen, the jury and unanimously of opinion before all the circumstances, that he was laboring under the influence of drink, and came to his death from the effect of his habits and exposure to the weather, during the rain and storm of Sunday night and monday last. |
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John Hudson | December 3, 1889 | at Laurens Court House, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say. That the said John Hudson came to his death, by Accident while drunk in a Scuffle with John Ray. |
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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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Samuel Whillow | December 17, 1818 | Laurens County, SC |
We the Jurors after having been lawfully summoned, & sworn by James Watts having examined the body of decsd. Give it as our opinion that sd. Whillow came to his death by reason of his being very much intoxicated with ardent spirits & in attempting to go home some time about dark forced his young horse in saluda river at Childs' Ferry & drowned... |
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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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Milton Barter[?] | youth | August 24, 1849 | at Capt. Andrew J Hammonds Mills, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say . . .by accidental drowning in Mr Andrew Hammonds Mill Pond |
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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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William Hopkins | at J. Feaster Lyles' plantation, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death by the accidental discharge of a shot gun in the hands of Robert Hopkins[.] |
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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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[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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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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John Young | October 1, 1857 | in Winnsboro, Fairfield County, SC |
We the jury after hearing the evidence offered to us on the above inquest find that the deceased came to his death by an injury or hurt received in the suffer with James Guy, either by a from said Guy or by falling upon Guys knee when said was fallen down |
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Belaus[Velaus?] | slave, boy | March 30, 1863 | at Robert Smiths, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oath do say-that he came to his death. . .by going in to the Mill Pond of B W Hatchers. . .and was by Misfortune of accidently drowned |
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Unknown Infant | Unknown Infant | March 10, 1883 | at the house of Peter Blakeney, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say That said child in manner and form aforesaid came to its death by misfortune or accident |
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Anna Queen Fuller | five year old child | November 18, 1893 | at Flatwoods, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased was burnt. And Anna Queen Fuller in manner and form aforesaid came to her death by misfortune or accident. |
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Isaac McMulkin | at the Old Smith place, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the deceased came to his death at his Father's house the 20 June 1895 from accidental burning. |
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Edinborough Ryan | December 30, 1882 | at Mrs D. L Bussy Plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say ... that the said Edinborough Ryan Came to his death from cause unknown |
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John Groce | June 12, 1876 | at John Groce's, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he John P. Groce came to his death . . . by accidental drowning in the mill pond of W J Bates while bathing in company with P D Bates, Morgan Flynn and Benjame Cannon[?] |
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James Graham | June 8, 1858 | at the place known as the public square in Logtown, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Jame Graham here lying dead came to his death from intemperance and exposure |
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Lena Hutchinson | October 20, 1873 | Anderson County, SC |
do say according to their knowledge and belief according to the evidence that she came to her death by accident by being burned to death |
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Charley Campbell | March 14, 1892 | at Rhett Copelands, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say "that Charley Campbell came to his death. By Accident or Misfortune, By the burning of the house he was in |
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Walden C. Sullivan | September 12, 1893 | at the house of Mr. John A. Sullivan, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Walden C. Sullivan came to his death by accidental smothering at the Residence of John A. Sullivan |
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Samuel Brock Sr. | March 23, 1884 | at Samuel Brocks Sr, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the Said Samuel Brock Sr came to his death by being burned to death in his own hous supposed accidently |
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Alexander | January 2, 1862 | at Dr. Austins, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Alexander came to his death Jany 1st by accident having been caught in the running gear of the gin. |