historical violence database

  • Data : United States : South Carolina

Homicide and Serious Assault Records of Charleston, South Carolina, 1878-1912

Douglas L. Eckberg

Douglas L. Eckberg is studying homicide and serious assaults in three counties in post-Reconstruction South Carolina. He is working through a wide range of records, including newspapers, coroner's inquests, and criminal indictments. With the support of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, Eckberg undertook a pilot project in 2005-6 to digitize those records. For Aiken, Charleston, and York counties he has made JPEG images of the available coroner's records for all homicides, other potentially suspicious deaths (e.g., accidental gunshot deaths), suicides, and accidental child burnings. The records include testimony, ante-mortem statements, autopsy reports, appeals, sketches and maps of crime scenes, and in a few cases physical evidence. He has also photographed the arrest or indictment forms for all serious assaults and armed robberies. The period covers the years 1877 through 1920.

For a look at how Eckberg plans to estimate the number of homicides that occurred in post-Reconstruction South Carolina, see:

Eckberg, Douglas L. (2001) "Stalking the Elusive Homicide: A Capture-Recapture Approach to the Estimation of Post-Reconstruction South Carolina Killings." Social Science History 25: 67-91.

Presented here are his photographs of the coroner's reports and criminal indictments from Charleston, South Carolina, 1877-1912. They are available as compressed files (Zip files) of image files (JPEG files).

Data Description and Index (Word)

Homicide and Serious Assault Records of Charleston, South Carolina

Coroner's Inquest Books (ZIP files of JPEGs)

Indictments (ZIP files of JPEGs)