Natural Causes
The “hand of God” is an active presence in CSI:D files. To be sure, the Almighty took no part in the suicides and homicides; those were the work of men “not having God Before [their] Eyes But moved by the instigation of the Devil.” Deaths that could be traced to what we would call ‘natural causes,’ however, were typically deemed an ‘act of God,’ a ‘visitation by God,’ or the ‘dispensation of Providence.’
Such cases expand on the point made in the introduction that coroners’ inquests paint a very particular portrait of death in the nineteenth-century South. The stock and trade of the coroner’s office were sudden deaths, especially those that intruded upon the public view. An old man succumbing to slow cancer in his own home was unsuspicious and unlikely to be investigated. This explains why heart attacks and strokes (which they called apoplexy) figure more prominently than fever among the ‘hand of God’ cases in these files. It also explains the relative frequency of deaths that occurred out-of-doors. Daniel Brown died in his cotton field; Jane Laniere died “in the woods near the public road”; Hartwell Roper “fell dead ... at his plow.”
The words ‘Hand of God’ were also used in cases where the deceased had been struck by lightning. (In perhaps the strangest case, Broderick Mason and his enslaved girl, Cinthy, were killed by the same lightning bolt, a sure sign that God does not play favorites.) Despite the similarity in terminology, however, lightning deaths have been filed as accidents because, like cave ins and train crashes, they are cases of people simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time and however ‘natural’ they might seem they are not a ‘natural death.’
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Natural Causes Inquests
Name | Deceased Description | Date | Inquest Location | Death Method | Inquest Finding |
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Nesbitt Rice | April 21, 1886 | at Poplar Springs, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Nesbitt Rice came to his death by hand [of] god |
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Mag Potee | at N.D. Roberts place, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the deceasd came to her death at her home the night of the 2d of Sept 1892 from natural causes[.] |
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Unknown Infant | Unknown Infant | July 1, 1925 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
My opinion is that its death was from natural cause and has been dead for about four days |
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Charles Jones | February 11, 1879 | at R.J. Gladney's, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid Charles Jones came to his death by disease unknown to the Jury[.] |
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Sallie Busch | August 21, 1892 | at Lewis Beans plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say That she came to her death from heart failure |
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Nance | infant child | April 24, 1832 | at the house of Benjamin Landrum, Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the sd infant . . .died by the visitation of God in a natural way |
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Daniel | September 17, 1816 | at Reuben Meadows, Laurens County, SC |
do Say upon their oaths, that he came to his death by the visitation of God then and there to wit Reuben Meadows field aforesaid he died aforesaid and not otherwise. . . |
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R. H. Crawford | January 26, 1894 | at Elisha Boans, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the deceased R.H. Crawford came to his death from some natural cause or causes unknown to me |
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Martha Morris | January 9, 1881 | at the residence of Warren Morris, Anderson County, SC |
do say that the deceased came to her death from disease of the lungs . . . at the residence of Warren Morris. |
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Caswell Waldrop | April 18, 1882 | at the residence of Caswell Waldrop, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that . . . the said Caswell Waldrop . . . came to his death from the effect of an epileptic fit. |
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L. M. Stroud | August 18, 1909 | at Tom Strouds, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say: that the said Mrs. P. M. Stroud came to her death from natural causes |
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Vance Melton | January 18, 1930 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that he came to his death from natural causes |
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Bob | negro | September 23, 1864 | in the District, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say and dclare that the said Bob came to his death by the Visitation of God |
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Simon West | March 25, 1857 | near the house of dec'd, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that it is by the visitation of God |
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Margret Branan | December 15, 1889 | at or on Mrs. Alice Taylor's place, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Margret Branan died ... of heart failure or affliction of the brain |
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Charley Young | June 17, 1893 | on the plantation of Henry Young, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oathes do say that the said Charley Young came to his death from (Heart Failure). |
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Israel | slave | November 3, 1845 | on the plantation of David Gentry, Anderson County, SC |
do say that the said Israel came to his death by mischance, and not from any injury inflicted by the hand of another, but by the act of God. |
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Emanuel Thomas | at Winnsboro, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say that the deceased came to his death from natural causes[.] |
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infant Boy | infant Boy | October 29, 1894 | at [?] Coleman, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said infant didid from natural cause or by the hand god |
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Robert W. Kincade | December 27, 1845 | at the house of Baley[?] Corley, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that the said Robert W Kincde came to his death by a Stroke of Appoplexy in the house of Baley Corby |
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Thomas Noble | March 30, 1872 | at the residence of Thos Noble, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say That Thomas Noble in the manner and form aforesaid came to his Death by the act of God. |
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Mary Hillian | October 30, 1896 | at R.E. River's place, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: the said May Hillian came to her death from accidental Hemmorage of the lungs |
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Thomas Wynn | October 31, 1868 | at William Bousar's, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the dec'd died a natural death in his bed |