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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Edward Huntly | December 31, 1907 | [no location given], Chesterfield County, SC |
[No official declaration] |
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Tom | slave | October 25, 1859 | at the residence of Joseph Murphy, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Tom [a] slave of Joseph Murphy came to his death by a fall from a log and broke his neck |
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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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Unknown | June 6, 1829 | at the plantation of John Holinshead on Broad River, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say (viz) from the evidence of Mrs. Hugheys and John beal, with other circumstances that the negro boy belonged to a speculator who had brobibly traded for him in the district of Newberry and carried him into this district some distance when the boy took his master's horse and returned to Hugheys ferry...she [Mrs. Hughey] heard a considerable splash in the watter...John beal made oath that he was walking on the bank of the river near a mile below the said, ferry on the fifth..he states that he seen a negro [?] on a rock he procured a canoe the same evening and had him brought to the bank the negro was dead and from every cricumstances he believed the negro had been drowned and appeared he had been in the river one or two days |
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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 |
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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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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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Frank Young | June 28, 1874 | at Broom's Mill, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say: That Frank Young (colored) while bathing in Broom's Mill Pond in said County before noon on the 27th day of Juned 1874, did then and there come to his death by accidental drowning; |
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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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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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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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Jack | negro boy | May 14, 1852 | at the house of H. W. Posey, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oathes do say that the said negro boy Jack then and there voluntarily and feloniously himself did Kill by drowning in the mill pong |
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Lusindy Gainey | November 15, 1893 | at Spring Hill, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon there oath do say that Lusindy Gainey deceast Come to his deth By Being in Sane and getting lost in the Swamp and getting wet in the cold and come to death |
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Oscar Latter | at the Nancy Rabb place, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the deceased came to his death sometime between mid night and day the 27th of Feb 1889 on the Plantation of W.C. Rabbs from accidental Suffocation |
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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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Smith T. T. Richboury | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
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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Edward Young | December 26, 1833 | at the house of Mrs. Mathews on the waters of Wateree Creek, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that accord=ing to the evidence adduced to them, they believe, that the evening of the 25th December instant Riding at a smart rate, in company with Robert Harper. The said Edward Young by his horse suddently taking a contrary side of a tree from what he expected, or intended. thereby was thrown or dashed against the same which we believe caused the death of the said Edward. |
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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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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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Seware[?] Stuart | November 4, 1893 | at J.[?] E. Griffiths, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Seware Stuart Came to his death by the accidental discharge of a 38 caliber Pistol, in the hands of William Griffith, holding by the brick[?] and seware Stuart carelessly playing with it, and said Pistol fired. . .it was intirely accidental |
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Daisy Polk | May 20, 1889 | at Chesterfield CH, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon thire oaths do Say That the said Daisy Polk came to her death by the accidental burning of the house |
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Adam Hempley | February 1, 1853 | near Wilson Wingo's, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that they believe it. . .was caused by the falling of a limb from a tree he cut down himself |
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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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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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W. H. Davis | November 1, 1940 | at Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that W. H. Davis received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by gun shot in the hands of self-inflicted accidentally |
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Adam | negro man Slave, boy | August 3, 1850 | at Vaucluse Factory, Edgefield County, SC |
Upon their Oaths do say, he came to his death by his own voluntary act in attempting to cross the mill pond when became drowned |
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Willie Williams | Fairfield County, SC |
NO OFFICIAL CAUSE OF DEATH STATEMENT |
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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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Jack | slave [runaway] | November 21, 1835 | at Andersonville, Anderson County, SC |
do say that Elias E. Harrison ... a certain gun of the value of seven dollars then and there charged with gun powder and leaden buck shot, which he the said Elias E. Harrison then and there had and held in both is hands, then and there accidently and by misfortune and against the will of him the said Elias E. Harrison discharged and....and shot out of the said gun him the said negro man in and upon the right arm, shoulder and back of the head....ten wounds with said shot, which were mortal wounds |
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Dick Keith | January 6, 1877 | at George Lound's, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Dick Keith came to his death by freezing to his death from exposure to the cold |
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Thomas Henry | October 20, 1817 | at the Dweling Hous of Samuel, Union County, SC |
do Say on their oaths tha Said Thomas Came to his Death By a [?] fall that Nathan[?] Howard [?] him By throwing him [?] his hous[?] in a [????] |
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Mary Love | January 17, 1876 | at Mrs. Clovers Spencers, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the said Mary Love came to here Death by being accidently burned |
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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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John Ronnie | February 15, 1898 | Kershaw County, SC | |||
Jesse | May 15, 1850 | at Lyles Ford on the Broad River, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the negro man came to his dead by drowing or accident to the Jurors unknown |
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Joseph Powel | August 18, 1879 | at [??], Edgefield County, SC |
do say that the said Jos Powel came to his death by accidental drouding on Sunday evening crossing Logg creek |
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Samuel | Negro Man | Anderson County, SC |
the Decd had been missing ever since Sunday. . .he would search the Mill pond as he had been seen in the neighborhood?and found him floating on the water in the pond about 12 feet from the Dam. . .That he knew of no enemy the Decd had had never heard of any threats--thought it was accidental. |
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infant | June 8, 1828 | house of Jessee Husk, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths. . . that after carefully examining the dead body of the s'd male child of the s'd Martha Gibson ... are all agreed that the s'd child died by the visitation of God but by the blood being [?]led in large spots to be seen through the skin all on his left side from his face to his foot they thought it was probable s'd child might have eat some poisonous herbs or berries of the woods as s'd Husk had settled in the woods |
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Adam Wood | December 5, 1880 | at Cowpens Station on the A&C Air Line R.R., Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that said deceased came to his death . . . by being run over or struck by the train on said road, receiving thereby such wounds as to cause his death |
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John Pope | August 29, 1828 | at the house of James Watson, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon there oathes (after hearing all the testimony and Examining the body of the afore Said John Pope) all are of opinion that the afore said John Pope were intoxicated by spirituous liquors and received a fall from his horse which occasioned his death... |
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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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William Vaugh | August 28, 1842 | at the dweling house of Patrick Williams, Union County, SC |
adduced that William Vaughn came to his death by the fawling of a certain oak tree a part of which was found [?] his mangled limbs which had [?] shattered his Skull |
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Toby | negro man | July 10, 1844 | near Bauskett Bridge on Stevens Creek, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say the said negro man Toby came to his death by accidental drowning |
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Elijah Sullivan | April 24, 1898 | at Cow-buel[?] place, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he died from heart failure and the falling of tree across him by accident |
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[illegible] [illegible] | November 17, 1920 | at Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
We the Jurors find that the Cause to her death by Coming in Cantack with live wire [???] Light & [???] [???] |
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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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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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Berry Butler | October 9, 1892 | at J. H Lagroons[?] plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do Say that he Bearry Butler Came to his death by a pistol in the hands of John Gamillion |