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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Hampton Reynolds | July 30, 1892 | at J.W. Reynolds Plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say Hampton Reynolds Came to his death from burns received by Explostion from Engine |
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Daisy Polk | May 20, 1889 | at Chesterfield CH, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon thire oaths do Say That the said Daisy Polk came to her death by the accidental burning of the house |
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slave child | slave child | December 31, 1846 | at the plantation of Nathan Hawkins, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say . . .that it was either Smothered accidentaly or otherwise dyed natrualy |
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Edward Huntly | December 31, 1907 | [no location given], Chesterfield County, SC |
[No official declaration] |
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Herman Peters | November 2, 1836 | on the Camden Road near the house of Hugh Y.[?] Rosborough, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that they believe according to all evidence adduced to them, the said Herman Peters came to his death from intoxication and inclemency of the weather, some time of the morning of the 2nd instant, on the Camden Road four miles from Winnsborough |
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Muse | slave | September 18, 1831 | at the resident of Roger Parish, Kershaw County, SC |
do upon their oaths sayeth that the sd. Slave above mentioned died by the visitation of God a natural death on the 18 Instant. . .by lying in the open air the weather being very cool and he being very old and very thin clothed |
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Adam | negro man Slave, boy | August 3, 1850 | at Vaucluse Factory, Edgefield County, SC |
Upon their Oaths do say, he came to his death by his own voluntary act in attempting to cross the mill pond when became drowned |
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Eddie Summer | August 6, 1881 | Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths ... do say that the said Eddie Summer came to his death ... from gun shot wounds received in the right side discharged accidentally |
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Milly Thomas | October 8, 1878 | at Winnsboro, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the aforesaid Milly Thomas came to her death from being crushed under the shafting in W.B. Creights gin room on the afternoon of the 7th October 1878 at Winnsboro. |
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Allagood Suggs | April 4, 1860 | at the house of Alfred Jernigan, Horry County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that the said Allagood Suggs came to his death by misfortune or accident |
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Infant Boy Child | Infant Boy Child | June 18, 1883 | at Marsh Grobe Yard, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say . . .the Child come to its death accidentally or by being smutherd |
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Sally E. Hanna | October 19, 1875 | at Chesterfield C. H., Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the said Sallie E Hanna came to her death by being smothered, accidently during the night of the 18th Inst |
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Charles Hobbs | October 1, 1817 | on the highway near John Blacks, Laurens County, SC |
Do say uppon there oaths after hearing all the Evidence that cold [sic] be obtained that it is there oppinion that through Intoxication he fell from his hors [sic] and Sufficated [sic] in the mud and watter as it was a Night of Very hard Rain and he was found in a hollow and partly covered with mud and the same. |
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Lusindy Gainey | November 15, 1893 | at Spring Hill, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon there oath do say that Lusindy Gainey deceast Come to his deth By Being in Sane and getting lost in the Swamp and getting wet in the cold and come to death |
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George Hammond | June 24, 1871 | at Provosts Mill Pond, Anderson County, SC |
do say that the said . . .by accidental drowning |
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Viola Goings | at S.R. Rutland's, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that aforsaid children came to their deaths by accidental burning of the house in which they were fastined up on the morning of the 16th of March 1893. We also add our condemnation to the general practice of Colored Parents locking up helpless children in houses where there is fire. |
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Zilpha Fisher | July 19, 1882 | at Greenville CH, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that. . . the said Zilpha Fisher came to her death from sun stroke |
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Angus Jefferson Smith | June 4, 1874 | at Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Angus Jefferson Smith came to his death by accidental drowning in a water course known as Lawson's Fork 1 /12 miles distant from Spartangburg C.H. |
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J. J. Watts | April 17, 1848 | at the house of J.J. Watts, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased came to his death from the accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of Zack Gupple |
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William LeGrand | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
Charles | negro boy | March 7, 1857 | at Archy Clark residence, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say. . .he came to his death by lying down and going to sleep on the wet and cold ground and the Rain and water running over him |
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Seware[?] Stuart | November 4, 1893 | at J.[?] E. Griffiths, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Seware Stuart Came to his death by the accidental discharge of a 38 caliber Pistol, in the hands of William Griffith, holding by the brick[?] and seware Stuart carelessly playing with it, and said Pistol fired. . .it was intirely accidental |
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Male Child of M.C. & Bella Moody | Male Child of M.C. & Bella Moody | May 13, 1889 | on the plantation of M.B. Pool, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the child died by strangulation accidental. |
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Henry Oglesby | near Shelton, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that in their opinion from the Evidence brought before them that he came to his Death by an accident of Fire Near Shelton Depot in said County on the first day of March A.D. 1882. |
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M. N. Chapman | February 20, 1840 | at or near Mt. Zion, Spartanburg County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that he was drowned by accidentally falling into the waters of Wilson's Creek while in the act of fishing |
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George Grant | January 16, 1894 | at Laurens County Court House, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Geo Grant came to his death from the effects of a gun shot wound accidently inflicted by the hands of Edward Martin. |
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Julia Hightower | child | November 9, 1890 | at Mr Sam Marshes Place, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that She came to her death from being burn by accident |
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Nettie Mae Bennett | November 9, 1937 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Nettie Mae Bennett received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by shot gun in the hands in the hands of Derk Gardin (accidental) |
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Silas Cockrum | April 28, 1858 | at Jacks Bridge, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say, that he was drowned near Jacks Bridge in Reedy river in said District, by accident or mischance |
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John | November 24, 1829 | at the house of Robert G Bagley, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that according to such and all evidence it is their belief that on the night of the 23rd instant the before mentioned Alexander Caldwell and his little son (the deceased) was in a Small House and A Sleep an they believe that a pallet whereon the deceased lay or the house caught fire, by accident, and consumed the house and the child... |
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Major Crawford | July 21, 1880 | at Anderson Court House, Anderson County, SC |
do say that Major Crawford came to his death by accidentally falling from the trestle at Rocky River while in a state of intoxication |
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Daniel Gallis | January 31, 1819 | at house of Daniel Gillis, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that . . . by cutting down a oak he was accidentally struck by a limb of the said tree and instantly killed |
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Jack | negro boy | May 14, 1852 | at the house of H. W. Posey, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oathes do say that the said negro boy Jack then and there voluntarily and feloniously himself did Kill by drowning in the mill pong |
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Clarrisa Boyd | May 18, 1892 | at Beaverdam, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that she came to her death from the Effects fire being in a house that was burnt over her all by Accident or misfortune. |
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Elizabeth Tillatson | January 17, 1878 | at Frances Turner's, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said P. Elizabeth Tillatson came to her death at the house of Frances Turner ... from fire, occurring in the house where she lived |
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Willie Featherston | December 29, 1875 | at Ridgeway, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Willie Featherston came to his death, on Wednesday after noon, from a Knife wound, inflicted by himself, in the lower part of the Sternum, as we believe by accident |
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Hetty McRa | December 26, 1869 | at L.B. Stephen's plantation, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Hetty McRa came to her death ... from a wound in the left side inflicted by a [?] fired from a gun in the hands of Moses Stephens |
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Enoch Douglass | August 11, 1879 | near Wesly Barrs on the rail road, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that the said Enoch Douglass came to his death by accident |
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Hanah | infant Child | November 2, 1861 | at Cooperville, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say . . .the child was found dead . . .from bieng overlaid by its parents or some other unknown means to them in bed |
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Harcolas | slave, negro man | November 18, 1842 | at an old house Standing in the plantation of Mrs. Susannah Turners, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that . . .they do believe that from Exposure age and a burn which he had received some days previous was the cause of his death |
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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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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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Addora Wallace | Fairfield County, SC |
we the undersigned Jurymen do hereby find the following verdict That Addora Wallace came to her death by drowning not Known to the Jury. |
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Sebron Machan | November 27, 1878 | at James A [?], Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that said Sebron Macham came to his death by some means to the jury unknown |
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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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Berry Butler | October 9, 1892 | at J. H Lagroons[?] plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do Say that he Bearry Butler Came to his death by a pistol in the hands of John Gamillion |
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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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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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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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Avery | slave | November 14, 1831 | at a fording place of Singleton's Creek in the plantation of Jacob Champion, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that. . .the boy Avery came to his Death by Drowning by being Intoxicated |