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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Robert | slave, boy | April 8, 1847 | at Edward Hampton's, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Robert came to his death by some means to the Jurors unknown |
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Robbie Hopkins | August 3, 1934 | near McBee, Chesterfield County, SC | automobile |
upon their oaths aforesaid, do say, that the aforesaid Robbie Hopkins came to his death by means of unaviable accident on highway #35 |
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Richard Airington | October 26, 1942 | [no location given], Chesterfield County, SC | knife |
[No official declaration] |
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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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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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Rena McFarlow | [no location given], Chesterfield County, SC |
We the under signed Find that Rena McFarlow Came to Her deth By a pistol Shot By Her own Hands |
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Reason Collins | November 26, 1879 | at Greenville CH, Greenville County, SC | pistol |
upon their oaths do say that. . . came to his death from the effects of a pistol shot wound in the right temple the ball passing into the brain . . .himself did kill |
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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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Ralph R. Deming | April 16, 1825 | Laurens County, SC |
upon their oath do say that we believe he killed himself with a dirk supposed to be his own, or by a stab in the throat and breast, on Thirsday [sic] night last on the plantation of Wm More near the road leading from Laurens Court house to Newberry court house. |
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R.Y. Hayne Bell | March 31, 1893 | at R.Y.H. Bell's house, Laurens County, SC | razor |
ipon their oathes do say that he came to his death from a Razor wound on his neck, inflicted By his own hand. |
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R. W. Foster | September 26, 1859 | at the mill pond near Holly Spring, Spartanburg County, SC |
find that the deceased came to his death by voluntary drowning |
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R. Boyd Eubank | September 21, 1942 | at Jefferson, S.C., Chesterfield County, SC | shotgun |
upon their oaths do say that R. Boyd Eubank received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by 12 gauge Shot Gun in the hands of R. Boyd Eubank - Intentionally |
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Prince | negro man | October 27, 1844 | at Mrs Elizabeth Timmermans, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said negro Prince voluntarily Jumped into a deep hole of water in Sleepy[?] Creek near Mrs Elizabeth Timmermans . . .by which means he drowned himself |
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Pleasant T. Gossett | November 18, 1870 | Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said P.T. Gossett came to his death by hanging himself by the neck between the cribs at home |
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Phillip McDonough | December 13, 1829 | at the house of Thomas Nelson in the town of Winnsborough, Fairfield County, SC | razor |
do say upon their oaths that said deceased died of his own voluntary act put an end to his life by cutting with a razor through his windpipe & also through the veins and arteries of his left arm. |
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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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Peter | July 7, 1833 | at the plantation of Captain Chernal[?] Durham, Fairfield County, SC |
do say on their oaths do certify that the above named negro Peter came to his death by a voluntarly act of his own by hanging himself with a hickory with to a limb of an oak |
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Peter | October 25, 1834 | at Robertson Osborns, Laurens County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that the said (Slave) Peter came to his death By cutting his throat with his own hand - with his Shoe Knife valued at 10 cts. |
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Peggy Walden | October 31, 1840 | at the house of Joseph Walden, Spartanburg County, SC |
do say that the deceased Peggy Walden came to her death by her own act (viz) self murder in hanging herself from a branch of a certain. . .oak tree near the dwelling house against the peace & dignity of the state |
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Patt | slave | October 10, 1825 | at the residence of Mrs. Mary Mathis in Camden, Kershaw County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said negro slave Pat came to her death by voluntarity & feloniously hanging herself by the neck |
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Patsy Wilson | colored free woman | June 17, 1857 | at the residence of Robert Wilson, Anderson County, SC |
we do find that she came to her death, by hanging herself that the said Patsy Wilson in manner made from aforesaid, then and there voluntarily and feloniously herself did hang and kill, against the peace and dignity of the same State aforesaid. |
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Patsy Cleary | December 30, 1857 | at the house of Lewis [?], Spartanburg County, SC | hank of cotton |
having examined the corpse do decide that the deceased came to her death by the voluntary act of hanging herself with a hank of cotton |
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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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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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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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Nathaniel Shilton | November 26, 1814 | at the Dweling house of William Sims[?], Union County, SC |
Do Say on their oaths that the Said Nathaniel Shilton through the want of the Grace of God and the intigation of the Divel Did with a [?] tyd to the Jaw[?] of a barn and one Round his Neck Did filoniously hang him Self |
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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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Nancy Steele | December 11, 1842 | at the Poor House, Anderson County, SC | rope |
do say upon oaths that the said Nancy Steele . . . at the Poor House of said District was found dead that she had no marks of violence upon her except what was caused by the rope around her neck by which she was hanging from a limb of a tree about half a mile from the house & that she evidently came to her death by her own hands. |
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Nancy Poole | March 31, 1841 | at Nancy Pool's, Spartanburg County, SC | rope |
uppon [sic] their oaths do say by violence at her own house. . .by hanging herself with a rope by the neck |
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Nancy Hawkins | March 13, 1864 | near the residence of Wm. Hawking, Spartanburg County, SC | hank of cotton thread |
upon their oaths do say that the said Nancy Jawking came to her death. . .in the woods near the residence fo Wm. Hawkings near the North Carolina line by hanging herself with a hank of cotton thread |
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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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Nancy | Slave | June 19, 1847 | at the house of Mrs G. Rily's, Edgefield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that the said Nancy, Slave, came to her death by drowning herself in Little Saluda River |
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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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Mose | negro man | August 28, 1851 | near Joseph McCullough's, Greenville County, SC | hemp cord |
do say upon their oaths that Mose, not having God before his Eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil. . . in a certain wood . . .with a certain hempen Cord . . .as a felon of himself, feloniously, voluntarily and of his malice aforethought himself killed, strangled and homicideed |
Mint | slave | May 22, 1859 | at Sims McDaniels, Union County, SC | hemp rope |
upon their oath do say that Mint a slave the property of Sims McDaniel did hang herself by the neck with a hemp rope |
Michael Long | October 11, 1877 | near the Residence of E.N. Youngblood, Edgefield County, SC | knife |
upon their oaths do say that the said Michael Long Came to his death from a wound in the right Side of the neck inflicted by a knife in his own hand |
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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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Matthew Gambrell | August 12, 1843 | at James Mattison's, Anderson County, SC | manilla rope |
do say upon their oaths . . . in a certain woods standing and being the said Matthew Gambell being then and there alone with a certain manilla rope of the value of 12 cents which he then and there had and held in his hands and one end thereof he then and there put about his neck and the other end thereof he tied about the bough of a certain tree and himself then and there with the cord aforesaid voluntarily and feloniously and of his malace a forthought hanged and suffocated |
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Matildy Posey | July 13, 1831 | at Charles Poseys, Laurens County, SC |
do say that the said Matildy Posey not having God before her eyes but being Seduced by the instigation of the devil at the River then & there being alone in then called Redy River herself voluntarily & feloniously drowned. |
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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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Massie Robeson | June 18, 1919 | Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, SC |
we the Jurors find that she came to her death by her own hand by gun shot wound |
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Mary Peck | February 23, 1828 | in the District aforesaid, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their Paths, "That the said Mark Peck, came to her death, hanging herself with a hank of spun cotton, to the end one of the logs of the Chimney, while in a state mental derangement. |
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Mary M. Williams | March 20, 1860 | at William William's residence, Anderson County, SC |
do say that from the evidence itself shown that the deceased Mary M. Williams came to her death by an act of her own by drowning cause[ed by] mental estrangement. |
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Mary Gee | June 12, 1848 | at Peterson Gee, Union County, SC | rope |
do say upon the oaths . . .that we believe Mary E Gee . . .did commit Fellony on herself by hanging herself by the neck with a rope |
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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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M. F. Anderson | February 22, 1883 | at the residence of JR Anderson, Laurens County, SC | strychnine |
upon their oaths do say that the said M F Anderson came to her death by taking an overdose of Strychnine and that the said M F Anderson in manner and form then and there voluntarily and feloniously herself did kill against the peace and dignity of the same State aforesaid. |
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M. Emmitt Bryant | June 25, 1891 | at the Residence of Mrs Caterim[?] Bryants, Edgefield County, SC | rope |
upon their oaths do say the said M E Bryant came to his death . . .by hanging himself With a rope around his neck |
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Lucy Gray | December 27, 1867 | in the house of John Brown, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Lucy Gray came to her death [by] voluntarily & feloniously hanging herself by the neck in the house of John Brown aftoresaid to one of the joist of said house |
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Lovina | negroe girl, a slave | September 4, 1860 | at Doct H M Folks[Faulk?], Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say the said Lovina a negro Girl a slave. . .then and there voluntarily and feloniously here self did drown |
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Lonnie Jordan | February 4, 1934 | about 5 miles east of Jefferson, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their Oaths, do say, that Lon Jordan came to his death by gun shot wound in the head, by his own hand. |