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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Chasey Futrul | May 4, 1888 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the Said Chasey Futrul came to her death by Som natural caus or causs to the jury unknown and she dide on the 4 day of May 1888 |
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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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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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Matt Loyd | February 24, 1891 | at Mr. Carmal cemetary near the Old Wills, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oath do say that the said Matt Loyd died from Dropsy[?] of the heart |
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William McLure | December 7, 1844 | at or near the plantation of John Gage, Union County, SC |
do say that the said William McLure . . .was found lying dead near a small path leading from Union Ville to the plantation of John Gage . . .we therefore do believe that he died from some providential cause to us unknown |
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Madison Harper | September 23, 1867 | at the residence of R.E. Ellison, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Madison Harper came to his death from disease by the visitation of God |
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George Blakely | August 23, 1889 | at Tom Youngs, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that George Blakely came to his death "Natural Causes" |
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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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Christen Turnage | August 29, 1892 | at Robert Turnage, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that Christen Turnage came to her death form some cause or causes to the Jury unknown |
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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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Edward | slave, boy | October 22, 1857 | at the residence of Wm Miller, Edgefield County, SC |
came to his death by the act of Providence |
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Arlen Blakney Watson | February 2, 1902 | at Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
[No official declaration] |
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Alexander Moore | May 22, 1889 | at Wellford, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased Alexander Moore came to his death from the evidence given and our belief [is] that he died of apoplexy |
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Aneliza Perdue | January 31, 1913 | at Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Aneliza Perdue did come to her death by Natural causes |
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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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Charlotte | slave | August 6, 1837 | in Camden, Kershaw County, SC |
do say that she came to her death by affliction[?] of the heart |
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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 |
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infant | infant | May 5, 1893 | at F. L. Foys, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say we find that deceased Infant. . .came to its death from natural causes |
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negro child | negro child | November 1, 1837 | at Union C.H., Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths say that the said negro child . . .died by the visitation of God in a natural way |
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Dinah Jackson | April 29, 1880 | at Joseph Thompson's Plantation, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that Dinah Jackson came to her death from natural causes unknown to the jury. |
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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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Sallie McDowell | August 12, 1882 | Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that ... Sallie McDowell died of indigestion |
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Thomas Tillman | July 22, 1894 | at Thomas Tillman's place, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the said Tillman came to his death form natural causes |