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 Young | June 27, 1891 | at the residence of John Young, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that John Young came to his death from sum Strok |
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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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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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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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Rowland Cash | March 11, 1853 | at the residence of Ephraim Jackson, Spartanburg County, SC |
do say upon their oaths [deceased] came to his death by misfortune or accident |
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unknown negro | unknown negro | May 15, 1837 | at the plantation of A. Murphy or Joseph Prins[?], Union County, SC |
Doo say upon their oaths that the sade unknown . . .dide by the visitation of God by getting Drowned in Tigor River |
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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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Chas McQueen | February 5, 1895 | at Chas. McQueen's place, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That Chas McQueen came to his death from some bodily ailment unknown to us and by exposure in the cold |
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George Williams | August 23, 1802 | at Jeremiah Conants, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their oaths, that said George Williams came to his death by being Dashed against a Tree from his house. |
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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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John C. Arnold | September 7, 1875 | at Mary A. Taylors, Laurens County, SC | |||
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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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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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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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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John Ronnie | February 15, 1898 | Kershaw County, SC | |||
Jane | slave | April 16, 1849 | at John J. E. Gregory's, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths doo say that . . .the said Jane was accidently or unknowinly smuthered by her mother or some one Else in bead |
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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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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 |
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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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Mary Harrison | September 10, 1894 | at Dornville, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that the said Mary Harris, aforesaid, came to her death. . .by accidental scalding with hot Water |
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Riah Simpson | infant daughter of Jim and Manda Simpson | June 28, 1884 | at the Langly House on White Plains Plantation, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased came to her death in the hoise of Jim Simpson on the 28th of June between the hours of 8 & 9 oclock from the effects of a pistol shot in the hands of William Simpson accidentally through carelessness |
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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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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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Lester Caute Woodward | March 15, 1904 | at the residence of A. L. Steen, Chesterfield County, SC |
[No official declaration] |
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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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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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Amelia A. Alexander | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Amelia A. Alexander came to her death by accidental drowning in the millpond of A.H. Boykin. . .by sinking of a Flat caused by the weight of between fifty-three & fifty-six persons |
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Bill | negro boy | June 20, 1830 | at Capt. John Thomas Hooey on Broad River, Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that . . .the said boy came to his untimely death by accidentally getting drowned |
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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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Pressly Foster | boy | August 1, 1882 | at Mr. Wm G[?], Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that . . .came to his death by falling in a branch in an epileptic fit & causing strangulation |
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Jack | February 12, 1830 | at John McClintock's, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their oaths they believe he came to his death by burning and not otherwise. |
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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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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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Rebecca Hendrix | June 11, 1834 | at the house of Capt. Peter Hamilton, Spartanburg County, SC |
do say upon their oaths are of opinion that she came to her death by accidentally falling into the cogs of the mill |
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William Powers | January 14, 1828 | at John Powers, Union County, SC |
do Say upon their oathes . . .that the aforesaid Wm Powers came to his Deth by misfortune by Cuting a tree and falling on him |
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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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John | slave | November 13, 1849 | at the house of Mrs. J.S. McRae, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say the deceased came to his death by the falling of a tree |
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John Owens | January 31, 1891 | at the Lem Williams place, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death on the 20th day of Jan by misfortune in a corn crib that was consumed by fire, from some cause unknown to this Jury. |
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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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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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Die | December 23, 1836 | at the corner of Mrs. Sarah Young's field, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that they believe her to have died by mischance, by freezing to death. |
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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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Wade Harper | September 3, 1924 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
Wade Harper, about 17 years old, son of J. F. Harper, of Cheraw S.C. came to his death at Anderson's Mill, Cheraw, by mischance, without blame on the part of another person |
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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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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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Alice Robinson | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
Friday | slave | October 6, 1830 | at the house of Robt Martin, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say . . .that the sd Friday a slave came to his death by accident . . .on tyson River by the water wheel of Gd[?] Mill catching him the sd Friday a slave between the arm of Gd[?] wheel and a sile near it |
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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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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. . . |