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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rachel Dullivan | January 30, 1890 | at Rachel Dullivan Residence, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Rachel Dullivan came to her death from natural cause (Heart disease). |
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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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| Peggy | slave | March 28, 1841 | at Mr. Adamson's plantation, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that we find upon examination that [the] negro woman called Peggy Adamson the property of Mrs. Adamson ... came to her death by the visitation of the Divine providence |
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| Elias Smith | August 24, 1869 | in the county of Anderson, Anderson County, SC |
do say that while from the evidence before the jury there was serious grounds for suspicion that the said Elias Smith had come to his death by some in-proper means, the evidence of the dissecting physician relieves the jury of the disagreeable necessity of prosecuting the investigation further, and so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid Elias Smith came to his death by apopsy of the chest and diseased liver |
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| Aaron Oxner | October 11, 1877 | at Shelton, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that in their opinion & from the[?] best information that Aaron Oxner came to his death from Appoplexy |
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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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| 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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| William H. Lancaster | September 19, 1883 | at the residence of Jas. Giddes, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths aforesaid do say that the aforesaid William H. Lancaster ... came to his death from disease of the heart |
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| Dinah | slave | January 25, 1859 | at the late residence of John Gregory deseast, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that she died of [?] of the heart which has been protracted[?] for the last ten or twelve months |
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| Martha Stevenson | at Daniel Stevenson's, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that Martha Stevenson came to her death from natural causes probly influenza[.] |
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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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| 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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| Theatus or Theater Williams | August 21, 1926 | at Mt. Croghan, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: Theates Williams came to his Death from Hart Farlery |
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| Abby | February 28, 1840 | at Thomas Carters, Laurens County, SC |
do Say upon their oaths that the said negro woman Abby, on the 28th Inst 1840 at Thomas Carters in the District afforesaid was found dead and that She dyed by the visitation of god in a natural way & not otherwise. |
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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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| Benjamin Wood | May 8, 1829 | at the house of Benjamin Wood, Spartanburg County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that he the said Benjamin Wood came to his death by visition of God |
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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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| infant | September 30, 1884 | at the residence of W. A. Reed, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said infant came to its death resulting from scarlett fever or whatever the disease might have been |
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| Delia Hell | at J.K. Alston's plantation, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say the deceased came to her death by softening of the brain; in manner and form aforesaid. She came to her death by the hand of God. |
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| James Hammons | March 25, 1884 | at Andrew Bristers, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the Said James Hammons came to his death by some natural caus or causes unknown to the jurors |
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| Learma Butler | November 7, 1890 | at W.H. Folks plantation, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that she came to her death from rheumatism of the Heart ... by natural causes |
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| Levy | negro man slave | January 9, 1849 | at Austin Wilson's, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Levy Came to his death by natural Cause and that was an Act of God |
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| Thomas J. Fuller | October 5, 1894 | at T.J. Fuller's, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said T.J. Fuller came to his death "From Natural Causes." |
