South Carolina's Turkish People

Glen Browder, Terri Ann Ognibene

Description

The story of misunderstood immigrants and their struggle to gain recognition and acceptance in the rural South

Despite its reputation as a melting pot of ethnicities and races, the United States has a well-documented history of immigrants who have struggled through isolation, segregation, discrimination, oppression, and assimilation. South Carolina is home to one such group—known historically and derisively as "the Turks"—which can trace its oral history back to Joseph Benenhaley, an Ottoman refugee from Old World conflict. According to its traditional narrative, Benenhaley served with Gen. Thomas Sumter in the Revolutionary War. His dark-hued descendants lived insular lives in rural Sumter County for the next two centuries, and only in recent decades have they enjoyed the full blessings of the American experience.

Early scholars ignored the Turkish tale and labeled these people "tri-racial isolates" and later writers disparaged them as "so-called Turks." But members of the group persisted in claiming Turkish descent and living reclusively for generations. Now, in South Carolina's Turkish People, Terri Ann Ognibene and Glen Browder confirm the group's traditional narrative through exhaustive original research and oral interviews.

In search of definitive documentation, Browder combed through a long list of primary sources, including historical reports, public records, and private papers. He also devised new evidence, such as a reconstruction of Turkish lineage of the 1800s through genealogical analysis and genetic testing. Ognibene, a descendant of the state's Turkish population, conducted personal interviews with her relatives who had been in the community since the 1900s. They talked at length and passionately about their cultural identity, their struggle for equal rights, and the mixed benefits of assimilation. Ognibene's and Browder's findings are clear. South Carolina's Turkish people finally know and can celebrate their heritage.

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Turquía
• South Carolina Baptist Convention
• Turks of South Carolina
• Southern Regional Council
• Turkish name
• Culture of the Southern United States
• Bubba
• Turkish people
• South Carolina Lowcountry
• Lumbee
• Bapsi Sidhwa
• Grandparent
• Jacksonville State University
• State
• Mulatto
• South
• Hebrews
• Cajun
• Uncle Tom
• Moors
• History of the Americas
• Anthropology
• United States
• Of
• Turkey
• FL
• Lande
• Local
• KY
• LA
• TN
• Lumbees
• MS
• SC
• NC
• AR
• Cadiens
• VA
• GA

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781611178593
• Langue: English

Extrait

South Carolina s Turkish People
South Carolina s Turkish People
A History and Ethnology
Terri Ann Ognibene and Glen Browder

The University of South Carolina Press
2018 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN 978-1-61117-858-6 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-61117-859-3 (ebook)
Front cover image courtesy of Greg Thompson Collection, donated to the collection by Isaac Benenhaley/David Peagler.
To those from whom I come and of whom I am one, the Martin Frazier Ray and Lani Hood Ray family. Your life experiences have moved me, perplexed me, inspired me, strengthened me, encouraged me, and molded me into the person that I am today. May this feeble attempt lend to your voices: Martin Sr. (Papa) 1910-1996; Lani (Granny) 1911-1996; Melissa (Aunt Sis) 1932-2006; Josephine (Aunt Jo) 1934-2010; Martin Jr. (Uncle Bubba) 1936-1992; Bufort (Uncle Bufort) 1938-1963; Loretta (Aunt Ret) b. 1940; Pearl (Mom, the most intelligent woman I know) b. 1942; Della Mae (Aunt Della) 1945-2008; and Floyd (Uncle Floyd) 1948-2000.
Terri Ann Ognibene
To my daughter, Jenny, and wife, Becky. This project has made me more appreciative of our family than ever before.
Glen Browder
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A New People and Voice in Regional Life
Part One
Who Are the Turkish People of Sumter County?
Chapter One
A Community Like No Other
Chapter Two
The Traditional Story of Oral History
Chapter Three
Probing the Legend of Origins
Chapter Four
Documenting the Patriarch and His People
Chapter Five
The Turkish Traditional Narrative Is Confirmed
Part Two
We Are the Turkish People of Sumter County
Chapter Six
Our Voice: A Family Discussion
Chapter Seven
Our Journey: From Isolation to Assimilation
Chapter Eight
Reflections on Our Ancestry, Ethnicity, Community, Race Relations, and Systemic Oppression
Chapter Nine
Life at the Dalzell School for Turks and Integrating the White Schools
Chapter Ten
The Turkish Community Today
Chapter Eleven
Our Story Has Now Been Told
Conclusion: What Have We Learned?
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
Charts
Map of South Carolina and Sumter County, showing the Dalzell community
Excerpt of a survey plat dated 1815
Figures
General Thomas Sumter (1734-1832)
Joseph Benenhaley (ca. 1753-1823)
Eleazer Benenhaley
Matilda Ellison Benenhaley (1842-1936)
Lawrence Curly Benenhaley (1848-1923)
Noah Benenhaley (1860-1939)
Rosa Benenhaley (1857-1937)
Isaac Benenhaley (1927-2011)
Family and relatives of Noah Benenhaley (1860-1939)
Martha Ann Benenhaley Hood (1855-1919) and her niece Martha Jane Oxendine Benenhaley (1866-1951)
John Benenhaley (1853-1923)
Family of William Joseph Benenhaley (1858-1920)
Jesse Noah/Noah Jr. (1896-1960) and Maybelle (1898-1972)
Isaac Benenhaley (1927-2011) and his sisters Leah and Lillie
The cemetery behind Long Branch Baptist Church
Springbank cemetery
Some gravesites in the cemetery behind High Hills of Santee Church
High Hills of Santee Church
James Ray (1878-1929)
Nellie Benenhaley Ray (1879-1952)
The first minister and deacons of Long Branch Baptist Church
Long Branch minister and leadership burning the mortgage
The congregation celebrating paying off the debt of their church
Long Branch Baptist Church in Dalzell
Springbank Baptist Church
The Dalzell School for Turks
Students and their teacher at the Dalzell School
More Dalzell students and their teacher
Greg Thompson
Ognibene interviewing Turkish descendent Chip Chase
Schoolteacher Adrienne Love
Reilly Ray
Preface
Every so often, a pearl of poignant beauty comes our way. Something happens-something that is simultaneously painful and inspiring-enriching our lives and helping us better understand the world around us. Such is the beauty of the Turkish people of Sumter County, South Carolina. Their full history and true story-presented here for the first time-reveal a beleaguered society that struggled as a rural southern enclave through isolation, segregation, discrimination, and oppression for almost two centuries. They had to fight and win their full rights as citizens; and only in the last few decades have they begun assimilating into mainstream American society. In this book, the authors investigate and reveal the Turkish community s origins; and the Turkish people, shedding their traditional reluctance to talk about themselves, share the heretofore untold, inside account of their extraordinary community in Dalzell, South Carolina.
Actually, this book is two books. There are two authors, with two different objectives, pursuing two separate investigations; but the efforts come together to resolve a mystery that has confounded everyone for two centuries. First, Browder, a Sumter native, will present academic research documenting the ancestral background of the fabled Turkish patriarch and the chronological history of the Turkish community. Second, Ognibene, a Turkish descendant herself, will get the Turkish people to tell their own story about what life was like in this rural settlement; and she will share her personal feelings about the enigmatic heritage of this unique group. Overall, this work is a breakthrough analysis of South Carolina s Turkish community. You will find the Turkish people a revelational pleasure, and the following pages should prove both provocative and enlightening.
Notes on Authors, Objectives, and Analytic Model
The Ognibene-Browder partnership is recent and happenstance-but their backgrounds bonded them together for presenting this poignant pearl of Turkish life and history. They are revealed more personally in the following pages; however, as the following biographic entries reveal, they both have special reasons for trying to tell the true story of the Turkish people.
The captions include information derived from documents of varying nature over the past two centuries. Errors and inconsistencies are inevitable; however, the authors have exercised due diligence to minimize those problems.
Objectives
The authors hope to make several contributions through this project. The first objective is to try to solve the mystery that has plagued the Turkish people and outsiders from the beginning: Exactly who was Joseph Benenhaley? What was his role in the origin of the Turkish community? Is the Turkish traditional narrative true?
The second objective is to help the Turkish people tell their own story about who they are and what life was like within their community. Their voice has been a critically missing element of this part of South Carolina and southern history.
A third objective is to present the Turkish experience during segregation and integration in the middle of the past century. The participants interviewed here lived through their own struggle in this area at the same time that our nation was focused on the national civil rights movement.
A final purpose of this project-reflecting the authors responsibilities as teachers-is to inspire today s educators to embrace all students in the classroom. South Carolina, the South, and the United States of America have changed considerably over the past half century and continue to diversify in the twenty-first century. The story and voice of Turkish citizens who lived through those experiences should be very instructive in dealing positively with marginalized groups in contemporary society.
Analytic Model
The authors have designed a very clear, credible, and successful model, that is, a conceptual framework of propositions and strategies for discovering and telling the true story of the Turkish people. Presenting it here will help readers navigate the twists and turns of the rest of this book.
Seven Propositions
The authors started this project with many questions, premises, and hunches; and, as the work moved forward, the most constructive notions were refined into a concise list of propositions hypothesized as the main currents and nature of Turkish life over the past two centuries. Actually, readers can consider these propositions not only as the basis of the evolving project but also as the enduring principles in a conclusive conception of Turkish history.
Here are the seven propositions of the analytic model:
First and most significantly, the authors asserted that the Sumter County Turkish family began, ancestrally, with Joseph Benenhaley, the original Ottoman Turk, during the early years of the American nation. This was a central truism, based in logic and simplicity.
Propositions two and three were judicious elaborations of connectedness in the evolving community. They posited that Turkish lineage extended, mainly, to and through Benenhaley s descendants. Outsiders who married descendants thereby gained entry to the Turkish group; and being born to Turkish parents carried birthright inclusion.
Proposition four related to the ethnic makeup of the Turkish settlement in its formative years-and this historically involved racial connotations and practices. As already acknowledged, the original Ottoman Turk sat atop the family tree. White Europeans (the wives of Benenhaley and Scott) were part of the group from t