Tracing the Mysterious “Turks†of South Carolina Back to the Revolutionary War
For generations, this ethnic group was shunned, but new research sheds light on its origins
By Glen Browder and Terri Ann Ognibene, Zócalo Public Square
smithsonian.com
September 24, 2018 2:19PM
Sumter County, located in South Carolina’s midlands, is about an hour-and-a-half from the Atlantic coastline in one direction and from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the other. Named after General Thomas Sumter, the “Fighting Gamecock†of Revolutionary War fame, it’s a place like many in the historic Black Belt, the stretch of former slave-holding plantations that extends from Texas to Delaware. Sumter County has also been the traditional home to a community of dark-skinned people known historically and derisively as “the Turks.†The story of this community (who prefer to be called “the Turkish peopleâ€) shows how hard it can be to be considered “American,†even when roots run deep.
The “Turk†community has always traced its history back to an Ottoman refugee who reputedly served the colonial cause in the Revolutionary War. A brief version of their traditional narrative holds that a “Caucasian of Arab descent,†known as Joseph Benenhaley (or Yusef ben Ali, possibly his Ottoman name), made his way to South Carolina, where he served as a scout for General Sumter during the American Revolution. The grateful general then gave Benenhaley some land on his plantation to farm and raise a family, the story went. A few outsiders married in; but most who identified with the ostracized community and their progeny considered themselves people of Turkish descent. Amazingly, they persevered as an enclosed society—numbering several hundred persons in the area by the mid-20th century.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/tracing-mysterious-turks-of-south-carolina-back-revolutionary-war-180970383/
