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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Absalom McAbee | January 6, 1883 | at Almarine Willis, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say he came to his death by mischange by being partially paralised and falling into water and strangled or drowned being a man of 80 years or more and very feeble |
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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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Dobydick Golding | May 12, 1875 | at Office Trial Justice Bird, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say That the Deceased Dobydick Golding came to his death in the County & State aforesaid on Saturday May 8th AD 1875 by a Gun Shot wound with a Shot Gun in the hands of one Duck Miller alias Fuller and so the Jurors aforesaid upon their oaths aforesaid. Do say that the aforesaid Doby Dick Golding came to his death by mischance by accidental discharge of a double barrel shot gun very carelessly handled by one Duck Miller alias Fuller. |
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Elleck | free boy | December 13, 1866 | at Johnathan Gregorys, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there Oaths do say that he came to his death by the accidental discharge of a Gun. . .that Elleck free boy in manner and form aforesaid came to his death by accident |
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Sallie Holmes | December 20, 1893 | at D. P. Bodies[?], Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that. . .the said Sallie Holmes aforesaid came to her death from accidental burning |
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Willie Dawkins | at the old Ashford place, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that Willie, Dawkins came to his death at the house of Edward Rodgers the 12 of Feb 1891 from Accidental Burning |
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Aaron Rogers | May 14, 1872 | at Isham Johnson's Plantation, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That Aaron Rogers (the deceased) came to his death by accidental drowning in Thompson's Creek, below Purvis' Bridge, on Sunday the 12th May AD 1872 |
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Edward Norris | December 26, 1882 | at the residence of Aaron Wells, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say That on Friday the 22nd day of December 1882 Bil Norris went to Greenwood, and returned home late in the night, very drunk, and that on Saturday morning the 23rd day of Dec about 9 o'clock am the boy Edward decd. Was kicked by Bill Norris in his right-side the decd. lingered til the 26th day of December and died... |
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George Darby | April 20, 1823 | at Lores-ford on broad River, Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that . . .the said George Dary came to his death by drowning while in a state of intoxication & making an effort to cross broad River at Lore's ford to some of the Islands |
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Louisa Nettles | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
Sam Malloy | May 30, 1899 | at Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
From the evidence I got from the party's there the deceased was accidentaly drowned |
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Clem | slave, boy | October 3, 1858 | at Tabitha Abney's, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid Lem[?] came to his death by the accident firing of a gun in his own hands |
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Mitilda Gilbert | September 26, 1876 | at Isaac Gilbert's, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that she came to her death . . . being found lying at length in said spring being there drowned by misfortune or accident |
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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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Zechariah Tottey | December 4, 1806 | at the Mill River, Union County, SC |
do say on their oaths that the said Totty Came to his Death we Belive By toxication[?] in [?] and [?] By haggs[?] in a [?] |
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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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Ben | February 12, 1840 | by the publick Road Leding from Mr. Gaydons[?] Store to Rocky Mount, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths [Ben came to his death] by being intoxicated and laying out in the cold of the night |
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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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Female Infant of Milly Campbell | Female Infant of Milly Campbell | October 17, 1867 | at Laurens C.H., Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say - that it came to its death by accidental Suffocation. |
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John Shumport[?] | November 7, 1851 | at John Shumports[?], Edgefield County, SC |
Upon their oaths do say, that John Shumport . . .did come to his death by misfortune or accident |
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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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Sarah Farmer | July 14, 1878 | at Williams Goodwin Place, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say That the Said Sarah Farmer came to her death from a pistol shot taken affect just above the right Eye and that the pistol was supposed to be in the hands of the deceased and that it was accidental |
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Henry | male infant slave | November 23, 1860 | at Berry Shells House, Union County, SC |
uppon their oaths do say that the Decest Came to his death by accidental overlaying of his Mother & smothering to death |
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Charly Washington | boy | November 22, 1891 | at the house of George Washington near Bauknights ferry, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say that the Said Charley Washington Came to his death by the accidental discharge of a pistol ball from the hands of James Bobo[?] |
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William Johnson | January 20, 1871 | at William Johnson's residence in Camden, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said William Johnson came to his death ... from a sudden attack of illness occasioned by his having eaten oysters which were probably tainted |
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Walter Manningall | November 21, 1906 | at Clearview in Chesterfield County, Chesterfield County, SC |
Upon their oath do say Walter Manningall came to his death by accidental burning |
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Lousay | November 25, 1860 | at Doct John E. Padgett, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that the said Loosey came to here death by accidnetal Burning |
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Munroe Rabb | January 10, 1880 | at Spartanburg C.H., Spartanburg County, SC | |||
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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Freeman Holten | November 5, 1826 | at, or near, Mr. John B. Pickett's rig[?] at Mr. Richard Harrison's Mill, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said Freeman Holton came to his death on the 4th of November in A Mill house of Mr. Richard B Harrison's came to his death by a Fall from the upper Story in the inside of the House, the floors not being laid |
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Unknown Unknown | March 29, 1922 | at McBee, Chesterfield County, SC |
(We find that the deceased come to his death by being burned in the guard house at McBee, S.C. supposed to have been trying to burn his way to free on the morning March 29th 1922) |
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Thomas Anderson | March 24, 1835 | at Laurens Court House, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Thomas Anderson being highly intoxicated, walked into a deep pool of water inadvertently and was drowned. |
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infant slave | infant slave | December 30, 1857 | at Isaac Gregorys house, Union County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that . . . it came to its death by accidental overLaying or strangling by the mothers breast |
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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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John Downey | February 26, 1873 | at Winnsboro, Fairfield County, SC |
We the undersigned Jurors, find the following verdict, That the Deceased, John Downey, cam to his death the twenty fifth day of February 1873. From rupture of the spleen caus by misfortune or accident |
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Isaac Oliphant | November 9, 1882 | at Ritch Thomson, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say the said Isaac Oliphant Came to his death by a Gun Shot Wound unfortunately or accidentally in his own hands |
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Unknown | June 26, 1856 | at a spot near the Wateree River and on or near the Road leading to Chesnut's Ferry, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that after such examination as was in their power to make they are clearly of opinion that the decased came to his death by falling into the ditch leading from Bolton's[?] Branch while in a state of intoxication and being unable to help himself was drowned |
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Hannah Lee | March 7, 1893 | at Moor Church, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the deceased came to her death from natural causes |
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Emanuel | slave | March 12, 1856 | at Matthew McGraw's plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say-that Emanuel was Killed by the fall of a tree |
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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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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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Crosby Irby | at Perry Irby's, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the deceased came to his death at his home. . .from a gun shot wound accidently fired[.] |
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Augustus Johnson | December 17, 1885 | Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
Wee as sworn of in quest Believe Come to his Deth By Acdent |
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Emma Hunter | May 18, 1892 | at Beaverdam Church, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths Do say from the Testimony given that Emma Hunter Died from the Effects of fire; That she died on Tesday the 17th inst having been burnt in a house, that was burnt down on the plantation of M.B. Pool on the night of the 16th inst. All Accidental... |
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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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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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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 C. Arnold | September 7, 1875 | at Mary A. Taylors, Laurens County, SC | |||
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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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 |