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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Mingo Mosley | January 13, 1883 | at Samuel[?] Corley's, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths aforesaid do say that the aforesaid Mindo Mosley came to his death by accidental burning |
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Cora Boyd | May 18, 1892 | at Beaverdam Church, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that She came to her death from the Effects of fire, That She died on the 17th inst. Having been burnt in a house on the plantation of M.B. Pool that was accidentally burnt down on the night of the 16th inst. |
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London Byard | October 8, 1870 | at [?] Byers[?], Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death by the hand of Providence by the falling of the earth on him in a ore[?] bank |
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Lizzie May Crosby | at Feasterville, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that in their opinions from the evidence brought before them the infant came to its death from causes unknown to the Jury |
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Duke | negro man | March 25, 1855 | near Dennis Carpenters, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the aforesaid negro slave name Duke. . .did come to his death from intemperance and exposure |
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Lucius LeGrand | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
Charles | negro male slave, boy | September 20, 1827 | at David Johnsons, Union County, SC |
say upon our oaths that from the testimony before us we do believe that the aforesaid Charles was drowned in Big[? Broad?] River by Misfortune |
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A. L. Lattimore | July 2, 1883 | at Pacolet Cotton Factory, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid A. L. Lattimore ... came to his death by misfortune or accident |
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Leander Pack | August 14, 1883 | at the residence of Elias Atkins, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Leander Pack came to his death ... by a blow of a fallen tree of which the decased were cutting |
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Elsie Williams | June 28, 1886 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say: That the said Elsie Williams did on this place on the 29th day of June 1886-accidentally receive in her abdomen a pistol shot which caused her death on the 1st day of July 1886 |
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John Harrington | February 25, 1896 | at Dr. J. W. McKay's Plantation on the Pee Dee River, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say. That John Harrington came to his death by accidental drowning |
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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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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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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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Wilson M. Gilligan | July 25, 1855 | at the Jail of the Districtaforesaid in Conwayboro, Horry County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased came to his death by Dorwning, cause unknown |
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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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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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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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Chaney Pilgrim | August 12, 1877 | at the plantation of James Anderson, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid Chaney Pilgrim came to her death while in the bed with her mother Julia Pilrim. . .from some cause or causes unknown to the jury |
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George Ratcliff | May 1, 1874 | at C. A. Mores, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the Said George Ratcliff Maggie Ratcliff & Luis Ratcliff came to there deaths by being accidently Burnt |
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James Perry | December 27, 1894 | at Mt Enon Church, Edgefield County, SC |
upon oaths do say that the said Jim Perry aforesaid came to his death from the firing of his own Gun. . .by first fireing of his gun at a Rabbit Broke his gun stock threw up the Barrel and discharged the other load which caused his death |
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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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Willie Williams | Fairfield County, SC |
NO OFFICIAL CAUSE OF DEATH STATEMENT |
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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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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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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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Noah Wesley Dawkins | June 18, 1888 | at home of John Dawkins, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased came to his death by accidental drowning while in swimming |
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Maston Fuller | September 21, 1916 | [no location given], Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: By a pistol wound accidentially discharge by his own hands |
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Margret Douglass | March 10, 1892 | at Chesterfield Court House, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that Margaret Doublass came to her death by drowning while attempting to cross Thompson Creek near Craigs mill |
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Henry Henderson | March 19, 1850 | at Henry Hendersons, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oathes Do Say that the Said Henry Henderson came to his Death by accidentally fawling in to a Branch near his house while under mental Derangement on the 17th day of March about ten oclock at Knight [sic] and that Henry Henderson in manner and form aforesaid came to his death by Misfortune or accidental Drowning. |
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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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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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Flemming Taylor | at Jack Taylors house, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that deceased came to his death near his home on P W Clarks place in Fairfield County SC the 15 day of Nov 1896 from a Pistols Shot Wound at hands of Abram Kennedy |
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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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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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Robert Burns | February 3, 1873 | at Alston, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death by axidental Drowning |
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Peggy McLeod | December 25, 1870 | at George Rorie's dwelling house, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, That the said Peggy McLeod, in manner and form aforesaid came to her death by being accidently burnt |
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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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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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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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Edmund Cleveland | December 4, 1871 | at Spartanburg Court House, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that sd. deceased came to his death by the falling of the wall of Duncan's new building in the town of Spartanburg |