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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Washington Cash | March 8, 1873 | at Cash's Depot, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the said Washington Cash came to his death by tetanus or lock jaw caused by some accident unknown to the Jury. |
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William Johnson Senior | December 30, 1869 | at the first Swamp on the Road leading from the public Road to Hughes Landing on Little Pee Dee River, Horry County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say that we Suppose he came to his death by mischance |
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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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Henry Goodman | May 4, 1851 | at or near to William H Adams on little horse Creek, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the aforesaid Henry Goodman in manner and form aforesaid came to his death by drowning in said little horse Creek |
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Lidia Watson | January 26, 1894 | at J E Macks, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that the aforesaid Lidia Watson came to her death from accidental burning |
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infant | January 28, 1863 | at Cannon's Old Grave yard, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that said deceased child came to its or her death by carelessness or mismanagement or misfortune at the house of Jefferson Saterfield |
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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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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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Lucy Ellen Jane Rivers | November 9, 1882 | at Chesterfield C. H., Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say That the Said Lucy Ellen Jane Rivers came to her death by accidental burning Nov 9th 1882 |
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Della Jenkins | February 13, 1904 | [no location given], Chesterfield County, SC |
[No official declaration] |
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Gertrude | infant child | December 1, 1891 | at Edgfield Court house, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say. . .that the infant received burns which caused death |
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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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Munroe Rabb | January 10, 1880 | at Spartanburg C.H., Spartanburg County, SC | |||
Hollan | April 29, 1856 | at Conwayboro, Horry County, SC |
Upon their Oaths do say, tha the said Girl Hollan came to her Death by accidental Drowning |
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Henry | slave | December 25, 1830 | on public highway from Pendleton to Pickensville [modern-day Easley], Anderson County, SC |
do say that the said Henry did come to his death?on the night of the 24th instant, by intoxication, or being intoxicated and lying out in the wet died of expsoure or?.came to his death by misfortune by the act of God. |
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Edmond | May 5, 1828 | on the premises of David Higgins, Laurens County, SC |
After hearing the evidence we believe the aforesaid negro Edmond did voluntarily go into the water in a State of intoxication and by accident of mischance did drown. |
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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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Wilson Campbell | December 26, 1880 | at Henry Sorrels, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say it appears that the deceased came to his death by mischance by freezing to death the finding shall conclude That that Wilson Campbell, in manner and form aforesaid came to his death by misfortune or accident |
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Mary McDaniel | January 13, 1891 | at Burnside, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid Mary McDaniel came to her death by accidental drowning |
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negro man | negro man | April 10, 1850 | near Kilcreases Ferry, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say, that the negro here lying dead, was Killed or drowned by some means to the Jurors unknown |
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Henry Ethredge | June 2, 1899 | at the plantation of P.B. Mayson, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say: . . . that the aforesaid Henry Ethredge came to his death from foul air in the well |
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William Hampton | July 3, 1877 | at T. J. [?], Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Wm A Hampton came to his death by the accidental discharge of his gun in his own hands |
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Robert Brownlee | July 26, 1883 | at Seneca River, Anderson County, SC |
do say that the said Robert Brownlee came to his death by drowning accidentally while swimming in Seneca River. |
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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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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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John | slave | September 27, 1863 | at the residence of Johnson A Bland, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that the said slave John came to his by wounds in flicted by the discharge of a shot Gun in the hand of John A Bland accidentally or unintentionally |
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Joe Alexander Ryan | October 24, 1912 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that he came to his death in an accidental fall in the arms of his mother |
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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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William LeGrand | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
Elizabeth Belk | April 20, 1828 | near the Door house, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that in traveling to a neighboring house she fell down and being old & infirm was unable to rise & so perished |
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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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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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Lewis Bradley | Laurens County, SC |
we the jury find in our opinion that Lewis Bradlet Died in Laurens County on the 29th day of Decr. 1894 from great Exposure in the [extreme?] cold, and that no one is to blame as far as we know, for his death. |
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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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Harvey G. Elliott | February 6, 1867 | at Laurens CH, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that the said Harvey G. Elliott came to his death on this day, by a shot from a pistol in the hands of George F. Young, upon Mr Sullivans Lawn in the Town of Laurens, accidentally discharged on Tuesday 29th January last. |
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Enoch McLean | August 27, 1840 | at Wm C. Brown's, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say . . .came to his death by misfortune or accident |
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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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Dora Woods | May 3, 1885 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say: "By accident or mishap by a fall from the banister or shelf of the piazza while playing there." |
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Emanuel Courtney | June 6, 1894 | at Junsey Courtney, Chesterfield County, SC |
He came to his death by a gun shot wound, accidentally, in his own hands |
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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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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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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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Infant of Rick Rogers | Infant of Rick Rogers | June 11, 1895 | at J.B. Buchannon's place, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the said infant child came to its death from being accidently smothered in bed |
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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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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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William Fortune | November 24, 1873 | at Jerkens Stabberd, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: We find that the deceased Wm Fortune came to his death by excessive use of ardent spirits and exposure to cold, producing Lung congestion of the lungs and other viscera. |
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Charles | slave | July 31, 1851 | at the house of John M. Norris Esqr in Edgefield, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that by his head being mashed and and his scull broken at the gin house of John M. Norris . . .by the gin running gear, his head passing between the cogs and trunal[?] head, rounds or Wollower |
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Sis Bonham | child | February 18, 1894 | at M.B. Davenports, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say: that the child came to its death by having a quilt over it face and in our opinion sufficated |
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William Prince | July 9, 1851 | at the house of John W Garrett, Edgefield County, SC |
uppon their oaths do say that the aforesaid William Prince . . .come to his death by accidentally drowning himself |
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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 |