Suicide
On September 3, 1849, Sarah Shacleford was laundering some clothes with a friend when she suddenly stopped, excused herself, took a long handkerchief from the pile and walked into the woods where she hung herself from an unspecified tree. We will probably never know why she was doing laundry one minute and hanging from a tree the next. At the coroner’s inquest a friend volunteered that Sarah’s mind had been “deranged for some time” and perhaps it was.
The word ‘deranged’ comes up a lot in these inquests. Alexander Rogers cut his own throat with a razor, “being in a state of mental derangement”; George C. Mitchell jumped off his roof “while laboring under derangement”; and Elizabeth Greer shot herself because of a “partial derangement.” Such usage probably says less about the psychology of the victim than that of the witnesses. Suicide simply seemed to them a deranged thing to do.
The word ‘deranged’ covers a lot of territory, however. At her inquest, jurors used the same word to describe Jane Soseby, who hung herself on January 12, 1859. “I thought she presented some signs of derangement,” noted one witness. “I have heard of her being deranged,” noted another, or, at least, “[I] think [I have] seen her when she was not altogether alright.” And indeed Jane was not all right. Because her husband was beating her with anything handy. “I seen one [wound] on her as if she had been struck with a stick,” one witness told the coroner, “and one on her eye as if he had kicked her which she said he had done.” Another witness testified that Jane had showed her “some marks or bruises on her body inflicted as she said by her husband.... I should suppose they were done by a good heavy hickory.” (Southerners grimly knew their timber.)
Such spousal abuse is hardly surprising in an age when men were expected to ‘correct’ their wives as they might children or slaves. The indifference of Jane’s community is a little more surprising. Jane showed her wounds to at least five neighbors, admitted to all of them that she wanted to kill herself, and admitted to some that she thought she might “destroy her children [first] as they were suffering and would suffer” worse when she was gone. But the neighbors could not, or did not, intercede. And so, “no satisfaction to herself or any body else,” Jane tried to cut her throat but found the knife too dull, tried to find a river in which to drown herself, but could never find it, and finally gathered up her courage with her husband’s rope and went to the woods. Jane had found her exit strategy; her children would have to find their own.
Suicide rates have often been used by sociologists and historians as a sort of canary in the cultural coal mine, a way of taking the mental pulse of a nation or group at a particular moment in time. (Emile Durkheim pioneered this line of cultural commentary in Suicide (1897), arguing that integrated populations—Catholics vs. Protestants, women vs. men, people with families vs. those without—commit suicide at lower rates.)

Of the 1190 suicides in the CSI:D sample, 928 were committed by men, 262 by women, a ratio of almost 4:1. Whole books have been written on the “gender paradox of suicidal behavior”—the tendency of women to more often attempt, and men to more often succeed at, committing suicide. (In 2013, 79.1% of deaths by suicide in the United States were committed by males.) But the nineteenth-century rural south was a vastly different world from our own, and all comparisons must be handled with humility. Today, most of the gender paradox relates to method: men are more likely to shoot themselves; women are more likely to overdose, giving bystanders and care-givers a chance to intervene. This was true in the nineteenth century too, where men were most likely to employ a firearm, women a poison.
In the inquests collected here, 31% of antebellum men and 7% of antebellum women killed themselves with a gun. Such lopsidedness is notable although it is less than what we see in the United States today where 85% of successful suicides are committed by firearm. In the antebellum CSI:D sample both sexes were most likely to hang themselves, rope being by far the most affordable and familiar ‘technology’ available. This conforms to the latest research suggesting that it is not true that determined depressives will always find a way to kill themselves. Rather availability shapes the outcomes. The classic example is Britain in the 1950s, where for the first half of the decade stoves were fueled by a coal-derived gas with a high carbon monoxide content, making gas inhalation the most common method of suicide. In 1958, when the country began switching over to natural gas, not only did gas-inhalation suicides go down but so did suicides generally. To a degree, a prevalence of means creates a prevalence of ends.
But only to a degree. The ‘why’ matters as much as the ‘how.’ Suicide correlates strongly with unemployment, trauma (including military service), and depression, along with their typical chasers—alcoholism and substance abuse. These forces are clearly at work in these inquests as well, though the victims were not, by and large, living lives of quiet desperation and succumbing to losing battles with what Churchill called the ‘black dog.’ Instead they were living lives of actual desperation in which suicide probably was the only way out.
This is most obvious in the case of the enslaved, and quite a few of these inquests were done over the bodies of men and women who saw suicide as an act of self-emancipation. In June 1847, for instance, an enslaved woman named Nancy was busy shucking corn when her mistress asked her to go to the stable to feed the horse. When Nancy’s baby started crying, the mistress went in search of Nancy and found that she had continued on through the stable and drowned herself in the Saluda River. Nancy had “complained for the last few days, and in one case yesterday acted as if deranged,” the mistress told the coroner, but it is equally likely that Nancy had simply reached her breaking point with enslavement mid-shuck. More typical triggering events, however, were imminent punishment or recapture. The dogs closing around her, an enslaved woman named Lovina plunged into a mill pond knowing full well she didn’t know how to swim. It is hard to quite call this a suicide. Was Lovina choosing to die or choosing to no longer be enslaved?
This sense of being cornered, literally or figuratively, is a common refrain among the white suicides as well. Doctor John J. Cobb drowned himself in Elkins Mill Pond rather than follow through on a marriage. (The would-be bride’s family was threatening to kill him if he didn’t, so it seems possible that he had impregnated her out of wedlock.) Money pressures too could drive men to the breaking point. E. M. Whatley shot himself in the head, telling his family that “he was not able to work for them and that before he would be a drag to his family he would put an end to him self.” Adam Barker shot himself twice in the chest, saying he would “rather be dead than to be poor and beholding.” There were, however, clearly cases in which internal mental issues, rather than external pressures, played a leading role. Jacob Pruitt, for instance, shot himself in the abdomen because he wanted “out of this troublesome world” and when Solomon Ellenberg gathered up some rope and left his house for the last time, he told his daughter he just “could not stay here any longer.” “I knew he] was gone to kill him self,” she told the coroner, and “[I] never expected to see him alive again.”
NEXT: Accident
Suicide Inquests
Name | Deceased Description | Date | Inquest Location |
Death Method![]() |
Inquest Finding |
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William Washington | August 11, 1813 | at William Washingtons, Laurens County, SC |
Do say upon their Oaths that they have carefully Examined the body; which they believe to be the Body of Wm Washington Deceasd. And have also Examined Seven witnesses on the occasion [sic] and from the greatest Discovery which they are capable of making, Do believe that Wm Washington on Sunday the 8th of this inst left his family in the morning and at sometime of that day; after putting fourteen sttones in His... pockets; which would weigh About 20 weight; and tying of a plow hoe about His neck; threw himself into ready river and their by Drowning of himself - near to a place known By the name of the Flat Shoal. |
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Nathanial T. Hildreth | October 21, 1941 | at Chesterfield, S. C., Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Nathanial T. Hildreth received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Pistol in the hands of Nathanial T. Hildreth |
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Henry Coil | man supposed to be Henry Coil | December 25, 1824 | at the premises of [??], Union County, SC |
do say upon their Oaths that he with Strolling About Perisht with hunger & Coald . . .did kill and homicide himself |
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Abemolie[?] Gilreath[?] | April 20, 1876 | at the residence of A. M. Gilreath, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said A M Gilreath in his own house . . .with Colts [?] (5 shooter) Pistol did them and there voluntarily and feloniously shoot himself with 2 Pistol Balls |
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Micajah Crumpton | August 15, 1837 | at the House of Micajah Crumpton, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, That the said deceased came to his death by his own act, in the following manner (to wit) That by this morning, he the said Micajah Crumpton went into a shed room of his own house, he then and there being along hung, or suffocated himself with the Reins of a Bridle which he tied around his neck, and made fast to the top... of the bed post. That he had been in a melancholy or deranged state of mind for about two weeks previous. |
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Benjamin Clark | April 22, 1872 | at Benjamin Clark's, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the sd' Benjamin Clark came to his death by his own hands by hanging himself by the neck in the horse lot to the limb of a white oak |
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Unknown Negro Woman near Swansey's Ferry | Unknown Negro Woman near Swansey's Ferry | May 25, 1845 | near Swanseys Ferry, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon there oaths that the said negro woman not having god before her Eyes, but being seduced & moved by the instigation of the devil at the place aforesd then and there being alone, in a common river called Saluda voluntarily & feloniously drowned herself... |
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Biggers R. Mobley | December 31, 1860 | at Biggers[?] R. Mobley's, Fairfield County, SC |
upon our oaths do say that the said Biggers R. Mobly [?] [?] said then and there voluntarily and felonously himself did kill by hanging himself with a rope |
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William Johnson | November 28, 1840 | at the House of Wm. Johnson, Union County, SC |
upon their oathes do say . . .Wm Johnson came to his death by misfortune through intoxication |
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Frankey | slave | May 23, 1835 | at the Maj. R. Gibson Plantation on the Wateree, Kershaw County, SC |
The jury are of an opinion from the evidence before them that the deceased came to her death by drowning whether accidental or intentional they are unable to determine |
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N. J. Hancock | December 4, 1891 | at R. F. M. Hancock, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: that the Said N J Hancock came to her death form a Pistol Shot wound by her owne hands |
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Jacob L. Reep | August 16, 1908 | [at] E. J. Graves residence, Chesterfield County, SC |
Do say that he killed himself at the place found near E. J. Graves residence on the night of Aug. 15th 1908 with a pistol shot in the head |
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D. M. Richards | October 9, 1873 | at Wm. Waters', Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said D.M. Richards voluntarily & feloniously himself did kill being of unsound mind |
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Reuben Ligon | June 23, 1814 | at Reuben Ligons, Laurens County, SC |
Do say upon there oaths that we believe from the Evidence of William Wright the person who found the Body of the said Rubin Ligon hanging on a Branch of a Dogwood near the mouth of the said Ligons Lane on the twenty third Day of June 1814 and the circumstances appeared to us that the said Ruben Ligon was in a state of stupidity and insane and Did on the Day above mentioned between the ours [sic[ of then & twelve Oclock neer [sic] the mouth of his own lane then and there with a Rope the value of 6 1/2 Cents did tie one end about his own neck and the Other End to a Branch of a Dogwood and there Perpetrated his Own Death... |
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Mary Cole | March 4, 1828 | at the premises of D A Mitthers[?], Union County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that. . .Mary Cole. . . did kill and homicide her self by hanging her self with a Bridel of the value of twentyfive cent on a [?] tree |
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Dillard Higgins | September 29, 1837 | at the house of David Higgins, Laurens County, SC |
after taking and hearing the above evidence our opinion is that on the night of the 28th of this Instant the above named Dillard Higgins not having God before his eyes and being instigated by the Devil did voluntarily and of his own accord take a double Barreled Shot Gun and go into the Garden of David Higgins and then and there by the discahrge of one of the barrels shoot and kill himself by inflicting a mortal wound in the lower part of the throat against the peace and Dignity of the State. |
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Elizabeth Rudisail | July 14, 1872 | at the late residence of John N. Rudisail, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Elizabeth Rudisail was at the time of her death suffering from a mental derangement [and] upon the second floor of the late resident of John N. Rudisail. . .did feloniously bring about her own death by hanging herself |
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Negro Man | Negro Man | June 20, 1808 | Near Laurens Court house, Laurens County, SC |
Do say, upon their Oaths, that sd. Negro, not having God before his Eyes, but being. . .moved by the instigation of the Devil, in Laurens District aforesaid, in a certain wood near to Little River, the said negro being then and there alone with a pair of hauling lines, valued at twelve and a half cents, which he there and then had, and held in his hands, and... the sd. hauling lines in a slip noose about his neck, and hid the two ends over two certain boughs, separately, of a certain tree, and himself then and there with the hauling lines aforesaid, voluntarily, and feloniously, and of his motive afore though hanged and suffocated. |
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Rhoda Beam | March 19, 1861 | at Fishdown[?], Fairfield County, SC |
upon our oaths do say, that the said Mrs. Bean voluntarily and feloniously knowing[?] did Kil[?] by Jumping out of the flat at [?] fery into [?] and drounding hirself |
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C. B. Collins | November 4, 1900 | at C.B. Collins', Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: we the Jurors find that the deceased C B Collins came to his death by a gun shot wound inflicted by his own hand |
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Columbus Baskins | December 20, 1912 | at B R Rivers Doer, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: Columbus Baskins came to his death by gun shots inflicted wound by his own hand |
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Gabriel Hill | Colored | April 28, 1868 | on the plantation of John N. Wilson, Anderson County, SC |
give our verdict as follows, that the deceased came to his death by his own act, that of drowning himself. |
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George | October 9, 1822 | at John Williams, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their oaths, and so the Jurors aforesaid upon their oaths aforesaid, say that the aforesaid infant Child the aforesaid Susannah Finny, then and there feloniously Did kill and murder, against the peace of this State. |
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Daniel Coleman | November 21, 1837 | at the house of Mrs Citha Rowles, Union County, SC |
do say upon there oaths . . . not having god before his eyes and at the instigation of the Devil Commited Suiside by drounding himself in Broad River |
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Jacob Pruitt | March 15, 1878 | at the residence of the late Jacob Pruitts, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that at his own residence . . . said deceased did feloniously shoot him self in the abdomen with a rifle gun inflicting a wound of which he died |
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Violet | negro woman (slave) | March 25, 1844 | at John Dinkinses, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their Oaths aforesaid do say, that the aforesaid Violet in manner and form aforesaid, then and there, voluntarily and feloniously herself did kill |
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James G. Brice | October 20, 1864 | at the house of James G. Brice, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths do Say. That James G. Brice, in manner and form afforesaid, then and there, voluntarily, and feloniously, himself did Kill |
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Joseph Hancock | June 22, 1876 | at Mr. Joseph Hancocks, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That the Said Joseph Hancock came to his death haning by the neck by a small rope believe that the said Joseph Hancock came to his death by his own hands the said Joseph Hancock manner and form aforesaid |
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P. W. Morris | April 27, 1872 | at Anderson Court House, Anderson County, SC |
do say that the deceased came to his death by his own act to wit by drowning himself in the well in the Hotel yard at the Wavesly House?after first having made several attempts to destroy his life by stabbing himself upopn the neck, and left-side, under temporary insanity. |
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Nancy Drake | August 21, 1872 | at Mrs. Elizabeth's Anne Keaton's, Anderson County, SC |
say that the deceased came to her death by her own act. . .by drowning herself in the well of Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Keaton. . .in a fit of derangement |
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Mat | April 13, 1815 | on Hugh Mahoffeys Plantation, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their Oaths, that on the night of the 11th of this Instant he hanged himself with a piece of hickory bark |
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Earnestine Rewie | April 19, 1944 | at Cheraw, S.C., Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Earnestine Rewie received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Burns . . . She came to her death by burns - probably accidental |
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Walter Pegg | January 12, 1879 | at Greenville, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say . . .the deceased Walter W Pegg came to his death . . . by misfortune or accident |
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A. E. Powell | at A.E. Powell's residence, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that deceased A.E. Powell came to his death by a Pistol Shot in his own hands in his parlor of his residence[.] |
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Joseph H. Sellers | October 6, 1878 | at the residence of J. S. Sellers, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that on the 6th day of October AD 1878 at the residence of J. S. Sellers in the County and State aforesaid the said Joseph H. Sellers came to his death by voluntarily shooting himself twice with a Pistol once near the pit of the stomach and once in the forehead. |
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George C. Mitchell | September 19, 1874 | at residence of Marion Mtchell, Anderson County, SC |
do say that George C. Mitchell came to his death by his own act..either falling or by jumping from the house top into the yard while laboring under derangeme |
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Daniel | April 5, 1854 | at a graveyard in Laurens District near Mrs Nancy Parks, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Daniel came death by disease unknown to us |
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Earnest Hammond | October 15, 1945 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Earnest Hammond received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Shot gun in the hands of Person or Persons Unknown |
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Elisa Wilson | October 14, 1841 | at Edward Wilson's, Laurens County, SC |
We the above named Jurors do say on our oaths, that Eliza Wilson now here lying dead came to her death by her own act, by hanging herself with her apron and petty coat by the neck on a dogwood tree, in the forrest near her Father Edward Wilson's House on the 12th October 1841. |
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Daniel | slave, boy | April 28, 1859 | at L. Halls Tisery[?], Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that. . .Daniel came to his death by drownding whether axidental or intentional unknown |
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Patrick Bell | at Middlesex, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Patrick Bell came to his death by Felony of his own hands. That he killed himself in the same place he is now lying , Middlesex Plantation that he came to his death by a gun shot wound fired from a 38 calibre Wesson & Harrington pistolin his ownhand the ball entering the body between the third and fourth ribs to the right of the sternum. |
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Jane Crowder | July 10, 1848 | at the jail of Kershaw District, town of Camden, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that he deceased came to her death by suicide from hanging herself from the bar of her prison |
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A. M. Hill | March 19, 1879 | at John P. Sathens, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say That the Said AM Hill in manner and form aforesaid then and there voluntarily him Self did kill againce the peace and dignity of the Same State afoesaid by drowning him Self in a well on the 19th day of March AD 1879 |
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Cephas Palmer | March 31, 1879 | at W. G. Austell's Mill Pond, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Cephas Palmer came to his death by drowning being his own act |
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Daily Thompson | December 8, 1876 | at Daniel Thompson's, Anderson County, SC |
do say that the said Daily Thompson at about the hours of between . . . 10 and 12 oclock . . . deceased came to her death by her own hands by hanging herself by the neck until it was broken. |
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Phil | July 29, 1821 | at Laurens Court House, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said Phil not having God before his eyes, but being seduced and moved by the instigation of the Devil in the gaol of Laurens District aforesaid, being then & there alone with a certain piece of blanket which he then & their had one end of which was tied round his neck, and the other end thereof tied to the grate of the door of the dungeon, and himself then & there with the piece of blanket aforesaid volunarily & feloniously and of his malice aforethought, hanged & suffocated: And so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, say that as a felon of himself, feloniously, voluntarily & of his malice aforethought himself killed, strangled & murdered against the peace of the said State. |
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Ras | slave | December 6, 1850 | at D Dennys Mill, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Ras came to his death . . .coluntarily feloniously, himself did Kill |
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John M. Kenner | December 2, 1821 | in a certain wood at Winnsborough, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that said John M. Kenner Not having the fear of God before his Eyes but being moved & Seduced by the [?] of the Devil near Winnsborough in a certain wood there alone with a certain Bandana Handkerchief of the value of twenty five cents handkerchief end put [?] about his neck and the other end tied about a limb of a dead oak. |
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William Ewbanks | October 30, 1841 | at the house of Elizerbeth Ewbankses, Union County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said William Eubanks did commit suicide by hanging himself to a line[?] by the neck |
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Samuel Kennedy | June 8, 1842 | at or near Laurens Court House, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say. That the deceased came to his death in the woods near his mothers residence in said District by discharging the contents of a rifle Gun in to his chest in a fit of mental deragement, by resting the Gun on a rock and Tying a String to the trigger and then... pulling the Gun Towards him day and date above mentioned. |