Record Details

Database of Coroners’ Inquisitions Taken Over the Bodies of Enslaved, Formerly Enslaved, and Free Black Peoples in the U.S. South, 1840s-1890s

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Database of Coroners’ Inquisitions Taken Over the Bodies of Enslaved, Formerly Enslaved, and Free Black Peoples in the U.S. South, 1840s-1890s
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/0RI3IY
 
Creator Berry, Stephen
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description This dataset is a subset of relevant records drawn from the larger CSI:Dixie (CSI:D) database (https://csidixie.org/), an active digital project seeking to record and analyze causes of death as revealed in coroners’ inquisitions taken in the nineteenth-century American South. The “Database of Coroners’ Inquisitions Taken Over the Bodies of Enslaved, Formerly Enslaved, and Free Black Peoples” comprises the 5,394 cases in the CSI:D dataset in which the decedent's race is coded as “Black.” The vast majority of records were created between 1840 and 1900. CSI:D brings together records from three different archives and digital projects. The records for South Carolina are original to the project and were created by working directly from the original archival documents held at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. CSI:D’s Virginia records build upon an index of inquests originally created by the Library of Virginia’s “Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative” (http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/aan/). Finally, the Missouri records build upon an index of inquests originally created by the Missouri Digital Heritage’s “Coroner’s Inquest Database,” which includes records for several Missouri counties but strongly emphasizes the City of St. Louis (https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/archivesdb/Coroners/). Bringing these three datasets together, CSI:D standardized data conventions and coded every cause of death. Of the 1,199 cases where the deceased was enslaved at the time of death, 462 are recorded as fatal accidents, 341 as homicides, 202 as natural deaths, and 98 as suicides.
 
Subject Arts and Humanities
Slavery
South Carolina
Missouri
Virginia
 
Language English
 
Date 2020-12-30
 
Contributor Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation
 
Type Coroner’s Inquest Records
 
Source Anderson County, South Carolina General Sessions
Chesterfield County, South Carolina General Sessions
Edgefield County, South Carolina General Sessions
Fairfield County, South Carolina General Sessions
Greenville County, South Carolina General Sessions
Horry County, South Carolina General Sessions
Kershaw County, South Carolina General Sessions
Laurens County, South Carolina General Sessions
Spartanburg County, South Carolina General Sessions
Union County, South Carolina General Sessions
“Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative,” Library of Virginia, http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/aan/.
“Coroner’s Inquest Database,” Missouri Digital Heritage, https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/archivesdb/coroners/.