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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Luis 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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Mary Jenkins | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
W. T. Reid | at Ridgeway, Fairfield County, SC |
thinks that he came to his dath from extreme alcholism and exposure. |
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Edinborough Ryan | December 30, 1882 | at Mrs D. L Bussy Plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say ... that the said Edinborough Ryan Came to his death from cause unknown |
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James L. Cathcart | February 18, 1889 | at Wm. Cathcart's, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that James L. Cathcart came to his death by accident of a gun shot in his own hands |
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George Lindsay | May 7, 1945 | at Chesterfield, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
[No official declaration] |
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Calhoun Templeton | February 3, 1892 | at Laurens CH, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Calhoun Templeton came to his death on the 3rd day of Feb. A.D. 1892 at Laurens CH. By Accident, being burnt in a burning house on the plantation of JD Watts. |
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Younger son of Joe Cunningham | Younger son of Joe Cunningham | March 26, 1908 | [no location given], Chesterfield County, SC |
[No official declaration] |
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Belaus[Velaus?] | slave, boy | March 30, 1863 | at Robert Smiths, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oath do say-that he came to his death. . .by going in to the Mill Pond of B W Hatchers. . .and was by Misfortune of accidently drowned |
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Nancy James | March 13, 1875 | at Thomas[?] Fegins[?], Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: She came to her death bye falling in a ditch |
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Tom Purvis | February 5, 1912 | at T. A. Hendricks Res, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: Tom Purvis came to his death By Accidental Gun Shot wound in the Hands of Ray Hendrick |
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John Dawkins | July 14, 1904 | [in] Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
before their oaths do say that the said John Dawkins caused to his death by his own negligence |
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slave | slave | March 10, 1835 | at the house of W.W. Dickies, Spartanburg County, SC |
are of the opinion that she came to her death by taking a fit or spazm and falling into the fire and not being able to extricate herself burnt to death |
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Isaac McMulkin | at the Old Smith place, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the deceased came to his death at his Father's house the 20 June 1895 from accidental burning. |
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John Groce | June 12, 1876 | at John Groce's, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he John P. Groce came to his death . . . by accidental drowning in the mill pond of W J Bates while bathing in company with P D Bates, Morgan Flynn and Benjame Cannon[?] |
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Willis Watson | June 14, 1876 | at the river bank on Saulda one mile above Gambell old Bridge, Anderson County, SC |
do say that said decd came to his death by accidental drowning in the River of Saluda. |
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infant | infant | December 13, 1851 | at A. J. Gregorys, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that it was accidently smoothered by its mother |
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Thomas Moore | August 8, 1837 | at Tumbling Shoals, Laurens County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say, that he came to his death by accidental drowning in Reedy River, being in a State of Intoxication. |
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Milledge Fuller | freedman | February 18, 1867 | at John Ransford plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that. . .came to his death by a gun shot wound accidently done in the hands of Ellie a freedwoman |
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slave | slave | January 17, 1827 | near McRae's mills, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that he came to it by intemperate drinking & exposure to the cold in an open field |
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Andrew Dawkins | June 25, 1895 | at Laurens CH, Laurens County, SC |
From testimony produced, I find he died from a fracture of the skull received from a fall while engaged in unloading a Lumber car, at the Factory at Laurens County. I also find that there was no one to blame for same. |
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Curry | slave | March 17, 1856 | at Mrs Elizabeth Middletons Plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Curry came to his death by accidental drowning |
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Henry | November 24, 1851 | at J.H. Dillards, Laurens County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that the Slave Henry came to his Death by Accidental Drowning. |
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Fletcher McFarland | January 17, 1881 | at Davis McFarlands, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say That the Said Fletcher McFarland came to his death by being burned and that it was accidently |
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Richard Mims | August 1, 1899 | at the plantation of Mrs. H. Carter, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say: that Richard Mims came to his death by a pistol Shot in the hands of John McManus . . . accidental Shot of John McManus |
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Benjamin Franklin Hocott | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
Daniel Fountain | Unknown, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths [do] say that he was shot accidentally by [a] pistol in the hands of his brother [?] Fountain about seven years old, about three Oclock yesterday evening and died [?] morning near Wallaceville[?]. |
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James Frazier | Babie | October 24, 1890 | at D. B Hollingworth, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths aforesaid do say that the aforesaid James Frazier did die from Suffocation |
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William McDonald | December 25, 1803 | in the District aforesaid, Laurens County, SC |
Say upon there Oaths that the aforesaid Wm McDonal in Manor & form aforesaid was hurt & came to his Death By Misfortune... |
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Truman Miles | October 22, 1839 | at Anderson Courthouse, Anderson County, SC |
do say that said Truman Miles. . . .at Anderson Court House was found dead that he had no marks of violence afore him and died by the [?] of God from the many severe falls he received when in a state of intoxication and not otherwise |
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Jonathan McCulloch | January 7, 1840 | at the house of Thomas Jefferson[?], Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that they believe the Said Jonathan McCulloch came to his death by being accidentally drund in a fit of Derangement |
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Abner Evans | June 14, 1867 | at P.A. Parker's place, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths Do say that the Deceased came to his Death By mischance that Abner Evin came to his deat By Falling in the Well and was Drowned |
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infant female | infant female | November 25, 1880 | at T. H. Long, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that . . . the said infant came to its death by being smothered by its Mother accidentally while she was asleep in bed |
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Toney Clawson | February 16, 1873 | at Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Toney Clawson came to his death by accidental drowning while attempting to cross a small streamunusually swollen from heavy rains |
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Henry | negro man Slave | August 21, 1850 | at New Savannah in beach Island, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths Say that the negro man Henry came to his death from being accidentally drowned in the Savannah river |
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Howard Gale | June 13, 1879 | at Jacksons Holinns[?] Mill, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oath do say that the Said Howard Gale came to his death by accidental droning |
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Bob | slave | December 26, 1845 | at the residence Mr. Parks, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death by being drunk and exposed to the weather which was wet and very cold |
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James Brooks | March 28, 1884 | near where Ferguson Creek enters South Tyger River, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths aforesaid do say that in said Ferguson Creek ... said James Brooks came to his death by accidental drowning |
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Basil Vick | March 12, 1941 | at Pageland, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Basil Vick received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Suffocation by smoke from fire in adjoining cell, occupied by Joe Church. |
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Center | December 14, 1853 | at Jos. Willinghams, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, all cirumstance of the case show conclusively that Center was accidentaally drowned in Little River last Sunday evening |
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Benjamin Grady | August 28, 1886 | at Brocks Mill, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the Said Benjamin Grady came to his death by being accidently Drowned in Brocks Mill Pond on 27th day of August 1886 |
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Ben F. Williams | March 13, 1895 | at M. C. Williams, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say Ben F. Williams came to his death by accident or misfortune |
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Bailey Redman | June 28, 1817 | at Brockman's Mill, Spartanburg County, SC |
do say upon there [sic] oaths. . .that his death was caused by [swimming] over the dam |
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Cornelius Johnson | at Samuel Johnson's Residence, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the deceased came to his death [at] his Fathers house, on the 15 [Dec] 1892 from burns frm Accidentaly catching on f[ire][.] |
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Judith Berry | December 17, 1811 | near Swift Creek ... [at] home of James Berry, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said Berry to came to her death by a violent burn which she received from her clothes taking fire at the fireplace in the house of James Berry . . . of which she instantly died. |
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Sarah Arledge | April 22, 1812 | at Meeting House Branch, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oath that the said infant child as aforesaid came to its death by being lost in the woods & perished to death by hunger and cold on the night of the twelfth of this Instant on Meeting House Branch |
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Jackson Byars | December 13, 1877 | at Boiling Springs, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Jackson Byars came to his death beside the Mills Gap Road nine miles from Spartanburg C.H. in the County and State aforesaid ... from appoplexy or effusion of blood upon the brain |
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Ludley | February 8, 1860 | at Conwayboro in Horry District (near the River Landing), Horry County, SC |
upon their oaths do say tha the said Slave "Ludley" the property of D. W. Jordan came to his death by accidentally falling from a Flat the property of his master into the Reiver and was drowned |
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John | August 16, 1859 | at Edw Garreth, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say that the Boy John aforesaid came to his death by going in to the water and by accident got into deep water and not being able to swim was drowned. |
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Maggie 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 |