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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colored | colored | April 24, 1874 | at Dr. J. A. Todd's, Anderson County, SC |
do say that infant child came to its death by pressure on preroted[?] artery by stran of beads. . . by misfortune or accident |
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Oliver Lee | February 17, 1892 | at Cokers Mill, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oathes do say that the said Oliver Lee came to his death by accidently falling upon a circular saw while in motion cutting of both legs near the body causing instantly death on the 17th day of February 1892 about 10 Oclock am at Cokers Saw Mill |
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Crispan Smith | December 5, 1836 | at the house of George Smith, Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that he died by the visitation of god in a natural way by accidentaly getting frozen to death |
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Spartin L. Gaddis | August 30, 1876 | near John O. [?], Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that. . .Gaddis came to his death. . .by misfortunte cutting a [?] tree and the said tree falling on the said Spartin |
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Emma Williams | January 8, 1894 | at J.O.C. Fleming's mill, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Emma Williams came to her death By accident, having been caught in the machinery of the mill. |
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J. W. Park | May 24, 1870 | at Black Jack, Fairfield County, SC |
The Jury having heard the testimony came to the conclusion that the deceased came to his death from drowning |
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Jerry R. McLeod | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
infant child | infant child | December 9, 1891 | at a colored cemetary, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the child came to its death from the burns that was found upon its body |
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J. J. Gulladge | December 24, 1869 | at the house of J. J. Gulladge, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that J J Gulledge did come to his death by accident |
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Arthur Ben | at Jenkinsville, Fairfield County, SC |
upon oaths do say that George Bone the said Artur Ben, by misfortune and contrary to his will, in maner and form aforesaid, did kill and Slay Artur Ben by the accidental discharge of a gun. |
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Edgar Daniel | July 26, 1886 | at Jack Daniel's residence, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased Edgar Daniel came to his death by accidental drowning, he, of his own accord, going too far into the deep water Broad River of J. L. Allison's place |
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Cora Boyd | May 18, 1892 | at Beaverdam Church, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that She came to her death from the Effects of fire, That She died on the 17th inst. Having been burnt in a house on the plantation of M.B. Pool that was accidentally burnt down on the night of the 16th inst. |
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Dorcas Crossly | December 4, 1857 | at the house of John Wofford, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say by falling the ifre and burning to death there being no person present at the time we suppose she had a fit as she was subject to having fits |
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Infant child of Laurens & Nelly Simpson | Infant child of Laurens & Nelly Simpson | June 18, 1890 | at Laurens Simpsons, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said infant child came to its death by "Accidental Smothering." |
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Griffin | Infant Childe | December 26, 1860 | at Andy [?], Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say the child come it death by accident or mischance by smuthering or some way unknown |
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Miles Robuck | December 16, 1856 | at the house of S.S. Roebuck, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased came to his death by having his head crushed between the head block and one of the arms of the Cog wheel of a Cotton Gin, that the said Miles Roebuck came to his death in manner and form aforesaid, by misfortune or accident. |
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Dolly Young | child | March 12, 1879 | at Greenville, Greenville County, SC |
upont their oaths do say that the said Dolly Young . . . came to her death by accident or smuthering or by misclued[?] |
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Charley Geeter | October 27, 1881 | at Violets Geeter's house, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Charley Geeter came to his death by accident from fire |
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Martha Boone | January 16, 1896 | at A. B. Merrimans place, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the said Martha Boone came to her death by accidental burning |
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nego child | nego child | July 11, 1835 | at the house of Jaby[?] Polk, Union County, SC |
do say upon their Oaths that the Said child . . .died by accidentally getting Smothered |
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John Davis | September 6, 1859 | at Jas. H. Parks, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say - That he came to his death by misfortune and accident by a plate falling struck him on the head about 1 o cl'k on the 5th Inst. Which caused his death in about six hours. |
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William H Maharey | May 25, 1863 | at Haslin Factory on the Procelian Manufacturing Company, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that the aforesaid Wm H Mahorey did come to his death . . .by Mischance of Misfortune or accident caused by Fixing of the Machinery of the Meed Mill and was chrushed to By the Cog Wheel of said of Mill |
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David Monson | April 5, 1889 | at Cheraw Bridge, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon thire oaths do says that his death was caused by accidental drowning and he died on the 4 day of april 1889 |
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Robert E. Tuck | December 14, 1879 | at the residence of L M. Gentry, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Rob't E. Tuck came to his death at the residence of L M. Gentry ... from exposure tot he rain and cold ... while in a state of intoxication |
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Julia Whalan | July 19, 1882 | at RH Young Plantation, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Julia Whalan came to her death by accidental drowning in a pool of water |
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William Applewhite | January 22, 1838 | at Camden, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Wm. Applewhite came to his death by falling in the fire |
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Jeff Bird | January 8, 1878 | at G.B. Pettigrews', Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say the deceased came to his death by the accidental discharge of a gun |
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Woodward King | July 16, 1820 | at Capt. Boles[?] Hamilton's, Spartanburg County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that from the examination of the corpse and information received from children they believe that he came to his death. . .by a shot from a pistol in the hands of his brother Mancel King aged ten years accidentally without any intention of killing |
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Joseph Ruffington | January 9, 1893 | at Thos O Attaways, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Joseph Ruffington came to his death accidentally by the falling of a tree cut by Pick Deloach |
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Infant son of Lee & Eliza Moore | at the plantation of Mrs. N. Yongue, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say this child came to his death from some natural cause unknown to the Jury |
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James Baldwin | infant | June 8, 1825 | at William Dilliard's plantation, Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said James Baldwin came to his death by an accident, occasioned by his elder brother Henry Baldwin tying a Rope around his the said James Baldwin neck and fastening one end of said rope to a [?] fastened in the joist and the said Henry going off and leaving of it in that situation ... as a reason for tying the said child was that he was subject to eating of dirt and Salt[?] and that his brother done it to prevent him from getting the same whilst he was in the field at work |
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George | May 6, 1849 | at C... Garlington Mill pond, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say by accidental drowning. |
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Anthony | slave | July 2, 1853 | at Samuel J. Hannond's plantation, Anderson County, SC |
do say the deceased came to his death by causes unknown. We find marks or bruises on the right side of the head and behind the right ear. We find no more marks or bruises on the deceased more than what might have been made by a fall. |
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Lizzie Darian | child | November 21, 1894 | at Waldo Richardsons, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that the said Lizzie Darion came to her death by mischance, the burning of the house it was left in by what means it caught on fire is unknown |
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Lora | slave | January 6, 1852 | at Gerrymiah Gregory's, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that . . .the child Lora she was accidently smothered by its mother |
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Duke | negro man | March 25, 1855 | near Dennis Carpenters, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the aforesaid negro slave name Duke. . .did come to his death from intemperance and exposure |
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Alexander Martin | September 8, 1867 | at the residence fo B.W. Knight, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Alexander L. Martin came to his death by the falloing of a tree some of the limbs striking dec'd on the back of the head neck and shoulders |
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Toney Moore | November 29, 1865 | at Conwayboro, Horry County, SC |
upon their oaths do say That the said Toney Moore came to his death by Mischance from the accidental explosion of a Steam Boiler |
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D. Stepp | June 9, 1883 | at Greenville, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that . . .the said D. W. Stepp came to his death by being drowned accidentally in the Mill Pond at Hutchinson's Tan Yard |
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Selena Crosby | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
J. F. Styron | April 21, 1891 | at residence of J. F. Styron[?], Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said J. F. Styron dropped dead in his field from being over heat while engaged in burning logs and in such heat drinking big drought of cold water and as the Physician tells us from heart failure |
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John Pinson | September 2, 1858 | at [?] Pinson residence, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death by accidental drowning . . . near McBees Mills in Reedy River |
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Willie Dunlap | September 6, 1904 | [in] Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
We the undersigned jurious find from the evidence given that Willie Dunlap came to his death by poison administered by an unknown person to us. |
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Mary Robertson | at the Gailiard grave yard, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that deceased came to her death from internal hemorrhage, caused by having a premature birth produced by some cause unknown to the jury |
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Tom W. Walters | January 21, 1917 | at Pageland, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the said Tom W. Walters came to his death by an accidental fall from theloft of Mungo Bros. Feed stables |
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Will Smith | December 9, 1882 | at Reidville, Reidville, S.C., Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say by pistol shot accidentally & falling from the mantel piece ... that the said Will Smith ... came to his death by accident |
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Dan Richardson | June 28, 1890 | at T.J. Sullivans Residence, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that Dave Richardson came to his death from the inhalation of poisonous gas in a well on the premises of T.J. Sullivan |
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Unknown | July 2, 1880 | at Samson Campbell, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say That the deceased came to his death by being accidently smothered by his mrother on the first day of July A D 1880 |
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Charles | negro male slave, boy | September 20, 1827 | at David Johnsons, Union County, SC |
say upon our oaths that from the testimony before us we do believe that the aforesaid Charles was drowned in Big[? Broad?] River by Misfortune |
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Lucilla S. Gresham | Chester Co., at Shelton Depot, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, That L.S. Gresham in manner and form afresaid, came to her death by accident drown in broad river at Fish Dam Ferry on the 4th day of February 1895 |