This article presents the findings of an empirical study of the ways in which railroads and the individuals they killed or injured handled claims for compensation from the 1840's to the beginning of the twentieth century. These findings are based on original research in the papers and official records of a variety of railroads. The unpublished papers relating to personal injuries of several railroads suggest that individuals in antebellum America tended to avoid recourse to formal legal institutions to resolve problems relating to personal injuries. They preferred to solve these problems privately and informally according to principles of natural justice and fairness. These sources reveal that railroads compensated individuals for injuries even when the railroads had no legal duty to do so. They commonly reimbursed workers and their families for the economic costs of injuries sustained on the job, paying medical and burial expenses and making donations to needy family survivors even thought rules of law, such as the fellow servant doctrine, assumption of the risk, and contributory negligence, precluded legal liability. Railroad officials also compensated pedestrians and passengers who were injured by trains even when they had no legal liability for the injuries. This article will suggest some explanations for this remarkable and counter-intuitive behavior. However, as the nineteenth century approached the twentieth, Americans increasingly thought about personal injuries in terms of legal rights and duties and in terms of legal rules and legal concepts such as causation, fault and settlement. Parties also more frequently used lawyers who developed and employed legal strategies to resolve demands for compensation. This article will offer some suggestions as to why this transformation occurred.

中文翻译：

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从小费申请到损害赔偿：美国工业化时期的人身伤害与铁路

本文介绍了对 1840 年代至 20 世纪初铁路及其伤亡人员处理赔偿要求的方式的实证研究结果。这些发现基于对各种铁路的论文和官方记录的原始研究。有关几条铁路人身伤害的未发表论文表明，美国内战前的个人倾向于避免求助于正式的法律机构来解决与人身伤害有关的问题。他们更愿意根据自然正义和公平的原则私下和非正式地解决这些问题。这些消息来源表明，即使铁路没有法律义务这样做，铁路也会对个人的伤害进行赔偿。他们通常会报销工人及其家人在工作中受伤的经济成本，支付医疗和丧葬费用，并向有需要的家庭幸存者捐款，甚至想到法律规则，例如同工原则、风险承担和缴费。疏忽，排除法律责任。铁路官员还对在火车中受伤的行人和乘客进行赔偿，即使他们对伤害没有法律责任。本文将对这种显着且违反直觉的行为提出一些解释。然而，随着19世纪接近20世纪，美国人越来越多地从法律权利和义务的角度以及从因果关系、过错和解决等法律规则和法律概念的角度来考虑人身伤害。当事人还更频繁地使用制定和采用法律策略来解决赔偿要求的律师。本文将就这种转变发生的原因提供一些建议。