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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Toney Moore | November 29, 1865 | at Conwayboro, Horry County, SC |
upon their oaths do say That the said Toney Moore came to his death by Mischance from the accidental explosion of a Steam Boiler |
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Elizabeth Tillatson | January 17, 1878 | at Frances Turner's, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said P. Elizabeth Tillatson came to her death at the house of Frances Turner ... from fire, occurring in the house where she lived |
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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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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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George Hammond | June 24, 1871 | at Provosts Mill Pond, Anderson County, SC |
do say that the said . . .by accidental drowning |
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John Hester | May 13, 1846 | at Hamburg in the shop of J.J. Kenedy, Edgefield County, SC |
Upon their Oaths do say, He died in the said shop . . .while working at the bench in a fit . . .came to his death by misfortune or visitation of God |
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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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Loney | November 20, 1848 | at Harrisons Ferry, Fairfield County, SC |
do find the following- verdict that Loney the Slave of John Harrison came to his death by accidental drowning in Wattoree River, and further we find no marks of violence oon his Body or person |
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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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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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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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Male Child of M.C. & Bella Moody | Male Child of M.C. & Bella Moody | May 13, 1889 | on the plantation of M.B. Pool, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the child died by strangulation accidental. |
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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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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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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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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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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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Eddie Summer | August 6, 1881 | Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths ... do say that the said Eddie Summer came to his death ... from gun shot wounds received in the right side discharged accidentally |
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Ed Glover | July 8, 1882 | at Poore House, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oathes do say He Came to his Death by and from the affects produced by a gun shot wound inflicted by Samuel Garner in the Calf of his right leg |
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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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Major Crawford | July 21, 1880 | at Anderson Court House, Anderson County, SC |
do say that Major Crawford came to his death by accidentally falling from the trestle at Rocky River while in a state of intoxication |
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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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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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Saul | slave | January 9, 1833 | at Cowpen Furnace, Spartanburg County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said Saul did unfortunately and accidentally fall from the dam or bridge |
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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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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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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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Angus Jefferson Smith | June 4, 1874 | at Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Angus Jefferson Smith came to his death by accidental drowning in a water course known as Lawson's Fork 1 /12 miles distant from Spartangburg C.H. |
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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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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 Dean | December 29, 1848 | on the publick [sic] road leading from William McMurry's, Esq to J. L. Kenedy's, Anderson County, SC |
do say from the evidence produced and all other circumstances he came to his death by intoxication together with the wet and coldness of the night having been seen late on the eavening [sic] before in a state of intoxication within a half a mile of the place where he was found also having a bottle with him--with whiskey in it which was found by him nearly empty. |
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Abram | negro man Slave | August 21, 1850 | at Henry L Maysons, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the negro man Abram came to his death from being accidentally drowned in the savanah river |
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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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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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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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Louisa Nettles | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
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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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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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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Peter | Negro man | December 30, 1859 | at the Plantation of Mr Wm Bunch, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that Peter. . .came to his death by the accidental falling of the top of a tree he appears himself to have cut down |
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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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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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Willie Williams | Fairfield County, SC |
NO OFFICIAL CAUSE OF DEATH STATEMENT |
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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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Hattie Smalls | at C.B. Blair's, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, That Hattie Smalls, in manner and form aforsaid came to her death by having burned[?] to death accidently |
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Lawrence Frazier | child | January 14, 1895 | at D.B. Holingsworths, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Lawrence Frazier came to his by accident or misfortune |
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Lila Washington | February 20, 1879 | at Wesley Barns Mill, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Lila Washington came to her death by accident in catching on fire and Burning to death |
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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 |