Literature / The American Dream: An American Officer ISOTed to the Revolutionary War

In the future, we have a saying that says "God is a Yankee." Perhaps that is why I was sent here and why He is still watching over me.

— Samuel Kim

One morning, a 21st-century Korean-American USMC officer named Samuel Kim wakes up to find himself tied to a chair in a tent. His surprise only grows when he realizes where and when he is: Breed's Hill, 1775, shortly before the Battle of Bunker Hill. Convincing the Colonial officers in charge that he is from the future, Kim soon realizes that he was sent to the past by a mysterious "benefactor" to ensure the soon-to-be-created United States of America fully lives up to its ideals. With the help of his laptop, and the occasional advice and material aid from his benefactor, Kim seeks not only win victory in The American Revolution, but also build an America that is stronger, wiser and kinder than how it was in his timeline.

This timeline can be read on SpaceBattles.com (here), on Royal Road (here) and on AlternateHistory.com with an account (here).

Tropes

• Adaptation Name Change:
  • After moving to the United States at a young age, Napoleon Bonaparte "Americanizes" his first name, going by Nathaniel instead.
  • Davy Crockett is known by Joey in this timeline, thanks to his parents deciding to name him Joseph after his uncle instead of David after his grandfather.
  • This timeline's version of Abraham Lincoln is named Obadiah instead.
• Allohistorical Allusion: After a brutal war that devastates large parts of the South, a group of violent extremists started by angry war veterans begins targeting people for horrific attacks. Except they're not targeting African-Americans and their supporters, they're targeting British settlers in the Pacific Northwest.
• Artistic License – History: In-universe; a Benedict Arnold biopic called The Revolutionary is noted to take some liberties with what actually happened, such as having him take part in the Siege of Fort William Henry even though it ended before his unit arrived.
• Asian Hooker Stereotype: In this timeline, Singapore became a hub for Chinese slavers to sell their product, on account of America being obligated to buy any and all slaves that land on their soil (as Singapore is an American Protectorate). One such courtesan, Madame Yin, saw an opportunity and built the Free Flower Theatre as a place of art, music and performance, turning many of her fellow ex-slaves into actresses. The theatre, in particular its "National Dramas", became staggeringly popular, changing the perspectives of many Americans to see these girls as legitimate, talented artists in spite of their actions behind the curtains — so much so, in fact, that it practically legitimized The Oldest Profession as a whole!
• Benevolent Conspiracy: The Watchmen Society, a clandestine group whose primary purpose is to control the flow of information from the future.
• Black-and-White Morality: Due to the Patriots fighting for racial equality and an end to slavery, while the British promise to help the practice continue in exchange for Loyalist support, this timeline's version of the American Revolutionary War has very obvious good guys and bad guys.
• Breaking the Glass Ceiling: One could say that America was founded with no such glass ceiling, on account of electing an Asian-American as its first President, with African-Americans and Native Americans present as cabinet members, senators and congressmen from the very beginning (the Continental Congress even accepts an Iroquois delegation after they agree to join the United States). Later on, 1801 sees Abigail Adams becoming the first female House representative (and a key flag bearer for the feminist movement), and in 1828, Eliyah Peters becomes the first African-American President.
• Caligula's Horse: In the aftermath of the Anglo-American War, many Southern towns institute an annual tradition of proclaiming a local donkey the rightful ruler of Great Britain.
• Category Traitor: Many in the Sioux Free Nation view pro-US Native Americans and Native American citizens of the United States in an even more negative light than the wasicu, seeing them as traitors to their own kind.
• The Chains of Commanding: One of the story's major themes is how stressful being in a position of high authority is and how much of a burden leadership can be.
  • Samuel Kim understandably believes that making sure things turned out better than they did in the timeline he's from is a responsibility that rests on his shoulders. Because of this, he's constantly agonizing over whether he's doing the right thing and worrying that his actions might have unforeseen negative consequences.
  • George Washington reluctantly agrees to become President of the Continental Congress. Even though he's head of state for a significantly shorter time period, he still keenly feels the pressures of executive work and wants nothing more than to go back to being a private citizen.
  • Thomas Jefferson has to deal with three formidable crises almost immediately after being elected president. Just three years into his presidency, he comments that if he'd known how stressful the job would be, he'd have retired from politics.
  • Joey Crockett talks to his successor, Eliyah Peters, about the myriad burdens he's had to bear, frequently staying up late at night and wondering if he's doing the right thing. Despite being only forty-two when he leaves the presidency, his hair is completely gray by the end of his second term.
  • Speaking of Eliyah Peters, on top of the inherent stresses that come with running America and trying to build a better future, he has to deal with the additional pressure of being the first black president and the devastation of the Anglo-American War. Unfortunately, he finds himself unable to cope with it all, and ends up killing himself shortly after leaving office.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: Samuel Kim claims his parents were slaves in Joseon who fled their homeland shortly after he was born, never staying in one place for very long due to them being paranoid about slave catchers. They eventually died on the family's journey to America, and when their son arrived, he spent nearly ten years traveling the frontier alone. Of course, this is all an invention designed to give him a vague backstory that's both plausible and impossible to prove, while also further convincing the American people that slavery is wrong (after all, if a man born into slavery could do so much good, it becomes harder to justify owning slaves).
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The fate of the British fleet when the US reveals the fruits of Operation Monitor: ironclads. Just five of them is enough to shatter the entirety of the British Western Squadron, despite being outnumbered 10-to-1.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: While there's definitely less prejudice in America than there was in the original timeline, there are still some strong reminders of when this takes place.
  • Baron von Steuben and a young army lieutenant end up charged with sodomy and threatened with the death penalty for the "crime" of having consensual sex with another man. Von Steuben and his partner have their case heard by the SCOTUS, which declares the sodomy law they were charged under to be unconstitutional... not out of any pro-LGBT sympathy, but solely because it violated the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of the right to privacy. Even this decision sparks massive protest, and is a contributing factor in an attempted secession by Quebec.
  • When Daniel Boone meets the federal troops sent to aid him, he immediately assumes the unit's leader is a white man, and is noticeably surprised when he realizes that the black Salem Poor is in command. Later that same chapter, he asks how he can trust the troops to handle the situation fairly when they have Native Americans among their ranks, even though (as Poor points out) the natives in his regiment are friendly Iroquois rather than hostile Shawnee.
• El Cid Ploy: When Kim dies in battle during the Anglo-American War, he tells his aides to conceal his death and continue issuing orders in his name until the battle is over.
• Exotic Weapon Supremacy: Washington deploys Hwachas during the Siege of Boston. They badly maul British troops at the Battle of Cambridge despite their flaws. Justified, as the British have never encountered such weapons before and don't know how to respond to them.
• Expanded States of America: From the beginning Canadian territory is part of the growing United States. Later the US will gain more in what is now present-day Mexico.
• Fictionalized Death Account: There are a few.
  • Benedict Arnold is killed in battle against Loyalists, while his historical counterpart survived the Revolutionary War.
  • Francis Marion is executed by hanging, rather than dying of natural causes as IOTL.
• Fictional Political Party: The Democratic and Republican Parties still exist in this timeline, albeit appearing significantly earlier and having different platforms, but they're joined by the Frontier Party (which claims to support citizens of the Western areas supposedly "neglected" by the federal government), the Union Party (which is very pro-industry and supports the expansion of the federal government), and the Liberal Party (defined by its support for individual rights and gender equality).
• Foreshadowing:
  • In a conversation with Benedict Arnold, Kim discusses Admiral Yi Sun-sin and how he stayed loyal to his country despite the way his government treated him, eventually dying in battle and becoming renowned as a hero for centuries to come. Like Yi, Arnold dies in battle and is remembered as a great hero who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. This also foreshadows Kim's eventual death, being fatally shot in battle and instructing his aides to conceal what happened to him and continue giving orders in his name until the battle ends.
  • On his return from the war against the Shawnee, George Brown's inner monologue mentions that there were multiple times when he and other soldiers were tempted to retaliate in kind for their murder of civilians. Some years later, the Hanwi massacre would be committed by American troops against Sioux civilians for similar reasons.
• Former Bigot: While he was never outright hateful towards those of other races, George Washington still held the kind of racial prejudices one would expect from a colonial American, even if he conducted himself more humanely when it came to his slaves than was typical for his era. However, Kim's influence helps him see that non-whites aren't so different after all, and by 1789, he's become a wholehearted advocate for equality in all forms, including racial equality.
• Giving Radio to the Romans: Kim helps fast-track technological development, leading to things like photography and the telegraph being introduced significantly earlier than they were OTL.
• Hegemonic Empire: The United States, even moreso than IOTL. While still expansionist, it goes out of its way to fairly and peacefully integrate new populations into the USA, to the point of Native American polities and successful slave rebels willingly applying for their territories' incorporation into the country of their own accord.
• The Hero Dies: Kim ends up dying from a gunshot during the Anglo-American War.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Due to Kim's intervention, many historical figures become better people than they would have otherwise.
  • While certainly not without its flaws and shortcomings, the early United States in general is significantly more humane and equal than IOTL. This timeline's version of the Declaration of Independence includes passages denouncing the British for maintaining the practice of slavery and for hypocritically encouraging "the honorable Native Americans" (a direct quote) to take up arms against the colonists and bring misery to them while simultaneously treating them like animals. When America wins its independence, it is decided that the only restrictions on voting rights should be based on age and citizenship ^note though there is a double standard; women need to be 35 or older to vote in most states, while men can vote at just 25, black people and Native Americans take part in government at the state and federal level from the very beginning, and while there is territorial expansion through force, the people living in the annexed territories are allowed to have a say in both their own affairs and national-level policy.
  • Thanks to Kim scaring him straight with knowledge of the alternate timeline, Benedict Arnold never turns traitor and is remembered as one of the greatest heroes of the Revolutionary War.
  • Andrew Jackson's family survives and he sees the inherent humanity of blacks and Native Americans first-hand; as a result, while still rather hot-headed, he's a far cry from being a slave-owning racist who duels people on a whim and forcibly evicts tribes from their ancestral homelands. To the contrary, he develops strong sentiments in opposition to slavery and in favor of racial equality, even adopting Sacagawea as his daughter.
  • Robert E. Lee in this timeline never owned slaves, by virtue of the practice ending in America before he was born.
• Historical Villain Upgrade:
  • Downplayed with Edward Rutledge, who's one of the most vocal opponents of Kim's idea to free the slaves. Though Rutledge was a slaveowner, there's no evidence that he particularly cared for the institution of slavery. Still, he does come around to the idea once a compromise is made for gradual, compensated emancipation.
  • While guerilla officer Francis Marion was known as the "Swamp Fox" and remembered as a great American hero IOTL, this timeline's version of him is known as the "Swamp Devil" and goes down in history as traitor, racist and war criminal whose name is reviled as much as Benedict Arnold's was in the other history. Played with in that he's not really all that different from his OTL counterpart, he just happens to be fighting for the British this time around and the improvements Kim caused for the United States make him look worse in comparison.
  • The real King George IV was a self-indulgent Royal Brat who held anti-Catholic views, but he was practically a saint compared to this version of the King, who promotes oppression of the Irish and deliberately engineers the bloody Anglo-American War with his machinations.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Understandably, Thomas Jefferson decides to make a trip to the bar after Kim shows him information about the horrors of World War II.
• Irony:
  • Benedict Arnold, whose very name ended up a byword for "traitor" IOTL, winds up dying a hero ITTL and is remembered as one of the greatest revolutionary patriots.
  • Due to having very different formative experiences, this timeline's version of Andrew Jackson ends up being one of the highest-ranked Presidents of the United States among Native Americans, both in his own time and long after.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When Andrew Jackson negotiates the Louisiana Purchase with the Spanish, buying Spanish Louisiana and parts of New Spain, the Sioux Free Nation's leadership realize they can no longer take advantage of territorial divisions between Spain and America, and it would be only a matter of time before the United State defeated their exhausted, demoralized forces once and for all if they decided to continue the fight. As a result, they jump at the lenient and even generous peace terms Jackson offers them. Unfortunately, some hardliners don't see it that way, heading west and making plans to restart the conflict in the future.
• Make an Example of Them: The Doolittle Raid, one of the last skirmishes in the Anglo-American War, is the US's concluding act to eliminate British naval dominance, retaliate against all the lives lost in the war and many of the Alliance's atrocities committed in it, and a firm warning about ever attacking them again. Five of the newest US ironclads shatter the British armada and bombard London itself, specifically targeting the ports, naval yards, and several London monuments. Despite demands from Southern politicians and even some Society members, effort is made to not target civilian holdings or burn down London entirely - though a few shots are still fired in those directions anyway. Because the raid took part during Queen Charlotte's coronation after George IV was deposed for stoking the war, the event is also known as "the Iron Coronation".
• Mandatory Unretirement: George Washington is rather relieved when Samuel Kim beats him in the first US Presidential elections as it means he'll be able to retire, and thus is very unamused when Samuel makes him the first Director of National Intelligence. Samuel at least says he'll be able to run it from his plantation in Virginia.
• Mêlée à Trois: One of the events that leads to the Anglo-American War is a three-way gunfight in Oregon between American gold hunters, British settlers, and local Native Americans unaffiliated with either side.
• The Mole: Remi Valliancourt, a Quebecois citizen and Monarchist affiliated with the French King, secretly supplies the Alliance with the plans for "Operation Monitor", the US's plans to build ironclads.
• Monumental Damage: During the Doolittle Raid, London is attacked directly and many of its monuments are destroyed, including the Bank, the Tower, Buckingham Palace, and Westminister Palace.
• My Greatest Failure: Kim blames himself for Arnold's death, since he told him about the future which made him daring to the point of recklessness, then gave him permission to try to reinforce Washington despite knowing full well about the potential dangers from Loyalist ambushes. He resolves never to repeat his mistake.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Francis Marion becomes known as "the Swamp Devil" among the Patriots.
• Nations as People: Embodied in the "National Drama", a form of comedic stage play popularised in Singapore in the 1850s, which depicts countries as costumed women and playing out their geopolitics as more domestic interactions.
• Noble Savage: Downplayed. While the Native American states and population centers tend to be more environmentally conscious and egalitarian when it comes to gender, this is less due to any inherent superiority in their culture and more due to the realities of where they live; notably, many frontier settlers hold similar attitudes. Similarly, while they maintain their tribal ways as much as they can and lag behind in industry, they're still politically savvy and more than willing to share in the benefits brought by Western civilization.
• Notably Quick Deliberation: The jury at Francis Marion's trial takes only a few minutes to hand down a guilty verdict, partly because the case against him was so overwhelmingly strong, and partly because he was a particularly hated Loyalist being tried by Patriots.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: George Washington's successful campaign in Nova Scotia gives him a major reputation boost but is never shown onstage.
• Older Sidekick: Benjamin Franklin becomes the decades-younger Samuel Kim's vice president, presumably in part due to his decades of experience in political matters.
• Older Than They Look: Samuel Kim is noted to age very gracefully, looking like he's in his mid-fifties when he's in his mid-eighties.
• Real Men Love Jesus: George Washington is a devoutly religious man, and he believes that Kim was sent by God to ensure that America succeeds and lives up to its ideals. During the Jefferson administration, he ends up starting a new sect of Christianity called Vicinusm.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • After meeting with Kim, George Washington becomes thoroughly convinced that Kim is some kind of divine messenger. Because of this, he quickly agrees to Kim's ideas and helps convince the Continental Congress to accept them too.
  • Downplayed with the Qianlong Emperor. While he certainly holds to the arrogant idea that China is the center of the world and all other nations can be divided into "tributary states" and "barbarian states", he's still willing to treat with countries that follow diplomatic procedures, and it's partly thanks to him that America and China have a notably positive relationship.
• Red Baron: Kim becomes known as the "Iron Commandant", the "Yellow Marshal" or the "Hun", due to his Asian heritage and great success in battle.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Nathaniel a.k.a Napoleon Bonaparte marries Elizabeth Adams, thus becoming a son-in-law to both John and Abigail Adams. He and his mother-in-law even serve as congresspeople at the same time.
  • Andrew Jackson adopts Sacagawea as his daughter, which is a large contrast to his feelings toward Native Americans IOTL.
• The Remnant: Even after the Sioux Free Nation agrees to peace with America, there are some hardliners who want to continue the fight. Some of them side with the British during the Anglo-American War.
• Renaissance Man: Samuel Kim finds success as a commander, a politician, a businessman, an author and a scientist. Downplayed, however, since for the most part, he's not really innovating, just introducing certain things early.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Villified: The Patriots hold a very strong moral edge over their opponents in the American Revolutionary War, due in part to their opposition to slavery and willingness to incorporate Native Americans and people outside the Thirteen Colonies as equals.
• The Roast: To drive home the point that the POTUS is an ordinary citizen, an annual tradition called the Presidential Roast is instituted. Every year on the fourth Saturday in January, public officials and friends of the President crack jokes at his expense, after which the podium is opened for any member of the public to mock him.
• The Savage Indian: Downplayed with those Native American powers hostile to the USA, such as the Shawnee Confederacy and the Sioux Free Nation. While their methods are often brutal and their views on the United States and its allied tribes are far from enlightened, most of them aren't inherently violent or hateful people; moreover, their fundamental motivation is a desire to maintain their autonomy and way of life, and they're (understandably) concerned that America is no different from the colonial powers that preceded it.^note This may seem unfair, considering the efforts America has taken to peacefully and fairly incorporate native tribes into the country and its government, but they have no realistic way of knowing about this considering the difficulties of communication during this time period.
• The Scapegoat: In the later part of the Anglo-American War, with the Alliance taking a beating across all fronts and slowly being pushed out of the US and public support from the war waning, the British Parliament decides to publish the letters of King George IV that contain a lot of his anti-US vitriol, thus making him take the blame for the war's failure and provide pretext to remove him and sue for peace. His daughter, Queen Charlotte, is put on the throne in his place.
• Self-Destructive Charge: At the Battle of Cambridge, John Burgoyne orders a frontal assault across open ground against Washington's well-prepared defenses, hoping that enough of his troops reach the enemy trenches to overwhelm a designated point in the American lines through hand-to-hand combat. Things don't go according to plan, and he loses a third of the attacking force.
• Semper Fi: Samuel Kim establishes the Continental Marines, who have an in-universe reputation for being some of the best of the Patriot troops. The United States Marines are their successors after independence.
• Sex Slave: One Chinese merchant attempts to sell young girls as "wives" to US Marines stationed in Singapore. The compensated confiscation of these slaves leads to a misunderstanding in the Far East that the Americans are willing to pay hefty sums for slaves, leading to many other slave ships traveling to Singapore until the Qing Emperor puts a stop to it.
• Shout-Out: When some militiamen start fleeing at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Kim rallies them by singing a somewhat modified version of "Do You Hear the People Sing?", which eventually becomes a famous song calling for liberty.
• Slave Liberation:
  • Many Patriot slaveowners, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, free their slaves after Samuel Kim shows them incontrovertible proof that keeping slavery would eventually lead to a civil war in the original timeline.
  • During and after the Revolutionary War, many American slaves are freed through legislative means, first by Washington and Kim's Emancipation Proclamation releasing all slaves in Loyalist territory (which gets enforced by the Continental Army as they raid into and later capture it), then by the Constitution which mandates an end to slavery throughout the United States within twenty years.
  • In 1790, a slave rebellion starts in North Carolina, with over five thousand slaves hoping to earn their freedom themselves by fighting for it. In a way, they succeed; while the rebellion doesn't last very long, the peace terms that end it include exiling the bulk of the slave army (aside from the leaders and those who committed murder or destroyed property) to the unorganized territory along the Mississippi River where they can live in freedom, and an earlier end to slavery in North Carolina.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Owing to a combination of the British wooing many slaveowners to the Loyalist cause with promises of preserving slavery and the worst aspects of the "peculiar institution" becoming widely publicized, the American public comes to generally view slavery as a barbaric and inhumane practice that contradicts America's greatest values. Because of this, Washington and Kim introduce a version of the Emancipation Proclamation declaring any slaves in Loyalist territory free, and the Constitution includes an amendment that mandates a complete end to slavery twenty years after its ratification.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Multiple people live significantly longer thanks to the changes brought by Kim.
  • Due to Kim's arrival changing the course of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Joseph Warren survives it and lives until at least 1789.
  • Alexander Hamilton never has his fateful duel with Aaron Burr, so he lives significantly longer.
• Spy Speak: Within the Society, its members use the phrase "the Mississippi" when referring to the old timeline that Samuel Kim came from, and use the phrase "the Ohio River" when referring to their current timeline.
• The Strategist: Kim's skills in tactics and strategy prove a major asset to the Patriots.
• Surprisingly Good Foreign Language: Samuel Kim is noted by multiple downtimers to speak English much better than they expected. Of course, in their day and age, ethnic Koreans with his level of fluency could probably be counted on one hand.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: In 1801, it would be revealed that a sergeant serving in the US military was in fact a woman. Deborah Sampson enlisted as a man under the name Derrick Sampson and despite nearly a decade of service she was reprimanded and discharged. This would inspire other women to openly join some National Guard units, and Deborah would be a symbol in the now-growing Feminist movements.
• Take a Third Option: Thomas Jefferson faces a dilemma when it comes to the controversial ruling in New York v. Von Steuben. If he comes out in favor of the ruling, it'll look like he has an agenda and lead to rumors that he influenced the court's decision; if he comes out against it, it'll seem like he's de-legitimizing the Supreme Court, which some might take as justification to attack it. So he chooses a middle ground: take a neutral stance on the issue, float ideas for compromise and appeal to the public for order. While this isn't a perfect solution, it proves much better than the other two choices.
• This Is My Boomstick: Kim uses his laptop partially to back up claims that he actually is from the future. Understandably, it tends to blow away people who see it for the first time. Society members refer to it as "the Oracle".
• Unishment: Participants in a North Carolina slave rebellion are exiled to unorganized territory... free to make their own way in the world away from their former masters, and provided with the tools they would need to do so.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: When a handful of Americans sneak into Oregon to go prospecting for gold, they unknowingly cause the "Oregon Incident", a three-way gunfight that starts a chain of events resulting in a bloody and devastating war.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: Once the dust settles after the Anglo-American War, a man named Hosea Baker writes an unflattering parody of "Rule, Britannia!" with lyrics insulting the United Kingdom.
• War Crime Subverts Heroism:
  • In 1802, during the war against the Sioux Free Nation, members of the United States Army and Anikegama Territorial Guard wipe out the inhabitants of a Sioux village named Hanwi. The massacre both causes a major scandal in America and galvanizes Native American resistance out west, even convincing some tribes who had previously been friendly with the United States to ally with the Sioux.
  • The Anglo-American War has the Alliance forces put civilians of conquered American towns into concentration camps, and effectively starve them to death. Once this news becomes public, the American populace in the rest of the country are galvanized even further. Later in the War, there are multiple incidents of Americans murdering surrendering Alliance troops in retribution for these war crimes.
• What Year Is It?: After confirming that he was sent back to a time before the USA existed, Kim asks his captors Israel Putnam and William Prescott what year he ended up in, and receives the answer 1775.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: While meeting with Kim, George III comments that he speaks English very well for an Asian. Considering the time period, it's unsurprising that he would say something like that.
• You Killed My Father: There were many factors for which King George IV decided to start the Anglo-American War, but one is that the Despard Plot, a bombing of various locations in London that gravely wounded King George III and put him in a coma that he never awoke from, was supplied by dynamite from the US. Moreover, the US refused to hand over the Irish-American citizens that sold the dynamite to the British for trial, instead trying and acquitting them in their own courts.
• You Know I'm Black, Right?: When Andrew Jackson disparages Europeans in general while talking to Nathaniel, the latter politely but firmly reminds the former that he's originally from Europe.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Once negotiations between Kim and Governor Tessier fail and it seems like Quebec attempting secession is inevitable, Kim goes outside and tells the Quebecois militiamen standing there to shoot him if they're serious about wanting to secede, pointing out that they'll probably have to face him on the battlefield and they might as well get it over with. None of them can bring themselves to shoot their liberator, as Kim expected, and they start lowering their weapons.

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