Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide contain descriptions of enslavement, abuse, and wartime violence.

I Survived the American Revolution begins during the Battle of Brooklyn, New York, on August 29, 1776. Eleven-year-old Nathaniel “Nate” Fox is running for his life as “[t]housands of British soldiers [are] on the attack” (1). He retreats, leaving one of his friends who was killed behind him. He is certain that the soldier is about to kill him when an enormous blast knocks him to the ground. After that, everything goes black.

The second chapter jumps back to July 11, 1776 (seven weeks earlier). Nate lives in Norwalk, Connecticut with his uncle, Uriah Storch, who was assigned to be Nate’s caretaker after the death of Nate’s Papa two years ago. Nate is working in the garden when he overhears Storch discussing the Revolutionary War with his friend, Mr. Marston. While most people in Connecticut support General George Washington and consider themselves to be Patriots, “Storch and his pal [are] on England’s side” (6). They are Loyalists who are against Washington and his troops.

Nate grows weary of gardening under the hot sun and wanders off to Long Island Sound to watch the ships sailing by.