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.
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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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Burke Chesnut | December 14, 1849 | near Boykin's T.O., Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased came to his death by falling from the cars and exposure while intoxicated |
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Justin Turner | April 9, 1868 | Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Jusin Turner. . .came to his death by mischance being exposed during a cold night without doors and from evidence quite intoxicated |
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Joseph A. McJunkin | March 15, 1858 | at Wm Hawkins House, Union County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that they believe the Decd came to his death from what testimony they can get from a [?] Fits[?] & in that condition had fallen in to the river where he Decsd was Fishing & drowned |
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John Stafford | December 16, 1831 | Spartanburg County, SC |
do say upon their oaths he came to his death by accidentally drowning in a state of intoxication |
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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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Unknown | July 2, 1880 | at Samson Campbell, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say That the deceased came to his death by being accidently smothered by his mrother on the first day of July A D 1880 |
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Ernest Bean | April 6, 1884 | at the Mill of B[?] Hill, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that Ernest Bean Came his death from accidental drowned |
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Joe Malloy | October 25, 1893 | at George Lany's, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Joe Malloy came to his death by the accidental discharge fo a gun in his own hands |
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Ephram Chapman | February 15, 1885 | at Thomson Creek Bridge on Cheraw Road, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the deceased came to his death by freezing on the night of the 12th of Feb. A D 1885 and the deceased was unknown to us all |
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James Sullivan | July 23, 1874 | at the Residence Cesear Sulivan, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the afforesaid James Sullivan in manner and form aforesaid with Lewis Beckes Toler Sulivan and John Mitchel then and there Did Drown |
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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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William Lundy | August 28, 1846 | at house of John Rainsford, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that decd came to his death by the accidental discharge of a shot gun that was in his hands the load entering his left temple and passing out of the top of his head carrying part of the brain & skull off |
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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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colored | colored | April 24, 1874 | at Dr. J. A. Todd's, Anderson County, SC |
do say that infant child came to its death by pressure on preroted[?] artery by stran of beads. . . by misfortune or accident |
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H. L.[?] Davis | Fairfield County, SC |
[No official declaration] |
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Samuel Culbertson | July 1, 1838 | at the house of Samuel Colbertson, Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said Samuel Colbertson . . .died by the visitation of god by accidently getting drounded in Broad River |
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William McKagen | May 5, 1860 | at Boykin's Mill, Kershaw County, SC | |||
John Davis | September 6, 1859 | at Jas. H. Parks, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say - That he came to his death by misfortune and accident by a plate falling struck him on the head about 1 o cl'k on the 5th Inst. Which caused his death in about six hours. |
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Jeff Bird | January 8, 1878 | at G.B. Pettigrews', Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say the deceased came to his death by the accidental discharge of a gun |
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A. R. Steel | girl child | August 28, 1869 | at Graniteville, Edgefield County, SC |
the said A.R. Steel came to her death do say That the deceased came to her death by an act of Providence [?] accidentally falling into a tub of water about six inches deep |
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Nancy Weaver | December 20, 1893 | at Edgefield Court House, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that we the jurors aforesaid do say that Nancy aforesaid, came to her death, by a gun shot wound in the hands of Savanah Gray accidently |
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Washington Cash | March 8, 1873 | at Cash's Depot, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the said Washington Cash came to his death by tetanus or lock jaw caused by some accident unknown to the Jury. |
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Mary Tottey | January 3, 1814 | Union County, SC |
do upon their oaths say that the said Mary Came to her Death By the act of God By Droning |
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Infant child of Laurens & Nelly Simpson | Infant child of Laurens & Nelly Simpson | June 18, 1890 | at Laurens Simpsons, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said infant child came to its death by "Accidental Smothering." |
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Everett Hook | July 18, 1891 | at the saw Mill of M J Hook, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say by accidently falling upon a cicular Saw While in Motion |
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John Marshell Pages | August 9, 1901 | at F. Sherrell's place, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that John Marshell Pages came to his death by accidental drowning |
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Enoch Adams | November 23, 1916 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that he came to his death by caving in of Cotton Seed upon him at the Cheraw oil mill being smothered. |
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Joe Coleman | near Buck Head, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, That Joe Coleman in manner and form aforsaid, came to his death 'from old age and freezing[.]" |
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Dolly Young | child | March 12, 1879 | at Greenville, Greenville County, SC |
upont their oaths do say that the said Dolly Young . . . came to her death by accident or smuthering or by misclued[?] |
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Kenneth Martor[?] | January 15, 1852 | at Thomas Samar's[?] Mills on horse creek, Edgefield County, SC |
Upon their oaths do say the decd came to his death . . .by becoming accidentaly entangled in, and with the running gear of Mr Thos G. Lamar's circular saw mill |
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Fanny | July 22, 1856 | at "Gressetts Landing or Store Landing" on the Waccamaw River, Horry County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the said slave Fanny the porperty . . . of the said R. G. W. Grissett did on Sunday the 20.th Inst came to her death by Misfortune or accidental drowning |
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Henry | slave | June 7, 1834 | at the House of John McBeth, Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the S. Henry . . .died by the visitation of God by getting drowned accidentaly in Tyger River |
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William Applewhite | January 22, 1838 | at Camden, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Wm. Applewhite came to his death by falling in the fire |
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John D. Player | February 24, 1870 | at Camden, Camden, S.C., Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid John D. Player came to his death from [?] of the Glottis |
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Lizzy Rardon | September 28, 1879 | at Clansey Holloways plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
do say the said Lizzy Rardon came to her death by falling into the creek and strugling and from exaustion and being chilled |
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Alexander Hough | August 9, 1879 | at Alfred Hough's, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say that Alxander Hough in manner and form aforesaid, came to his death by accidental drowning |
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Rody Kennedy | November 30, 1830 | at the house of Rody Kennedy, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Rody Kennedy came to his death on the morning of this day on his own plantation by means of the contents of a loaded shot gun being discharged in his body. The Jurors aforesaid say they have no positive evidence the gun was discharged, but from the circumstances coming before them and have no doubt it was discharged by the said Rody Kennedy himself. |
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Priner Davis | near Simm Davis' Spring, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Priner Davis came to his death from apoplectic Fit-brought on by drinking bad whiskey and exposure near the Public Road in Fairfield Co SC, leading form Winnsboro to Kincades Bridge on or between the night of the 13th and the morning of the 15th of January 1883[.] |
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John Weston | December 31, 1890 | on the plantaion of Robt Bailey, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said John Weston came to his death "From the Effects of a gun shot wound accidentally discharged in his own hands, on the 29th day of Decr inst." |
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John Strange | May 10, 1826 | at Rocky Mount Ferry on the Catawba River, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths the the said John Strange being in a state of intoxication on attempting to swim across the aforesaid river was unfortunately drowned |
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infant slave | infant slave | September 28, 1853 | at the house of James R. Jeter, Union County, SC |
came to its death by misfortune or accident |
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John T. Wood | August 14, 1865 | at the house of Dr. B.F. Kilgore, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid John T. Wood. . .was drowned in a hole of water near Dr. Kilgore's |
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Anthony | slave | July 2, 1853 | at Samuel J. Hannond's plantation, Anderson County, SC |
do say the deceased came to his death by causes unknown. We find marks or bruises on the right side of the head and behind the right ear. We find no more marks or bruises on the deceased more than what might have been made by a fall. |
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Minnie Johnson | December 22, 1892 | at John Bettis plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Minnie Johnson came to her death by strangulation caused by an accidental fall into shaws creek |
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Glasco Ferly | at the house of Glasco Ferly, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say: That the said colored Ferly came to his death by a gunshot wound accidentily inflicted upon himself |
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D. Stepp | June 9, 1883 | at Greenville, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that . . .the said D. W. Stepp came to his death by being drowned accidentally in the Mill Pond at Hutchinson's Tan Yard |
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slave | slave | December 4, 1852 | at the plantation known as Stockton's, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death by his appearance from privation and exposure |
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J. W. Park | May 24, 1870 | at Black Jack, Fairfield County, SC |
The Jury having heard the testimony came to the conclusion that the deceased came to his death from drowning |
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John Pinson | September 2, 1858 | at [?] Pinson residence, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he came to his death by accidental drowning . . . near McBees Mills in Reedy River |
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Gus Sexton | August 11, 1894 | at Tildy Austin's, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Gus Sexton came to his death by a gun shot wound inflicted by his own hand. |