My Brother Sam Is Dead
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50 free My Brother Sam is Dead trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
My Brother Sam Is Dead has been a classroom fixture since the 1970s because it refuses to make war look simple. James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier tell the story through Tim Meeker, a tavern keeper's younger son who watches his family pulled apart when his older brother leaves college to join the Patriot army against their father's wishes. This quiz follows the book in order: the argument that opens it, the secret errands and dangerous journeys of the middle chapters, the day the war finally marches through the village, and the trial that gives the novel its title. Other questions look at the real Connecticut people and places the authors borrowed, the awards the book won and the reasons some schools tried to remove it. It works as a chapter check for students studying the novel in class, as review before an exam, or as a challenge for anyone who met the book years ago and still remembers how it ends. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Under which Connecticut captain does Sam Meeker first enlist in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold was a New Haven militia captain when the war began. In the novel he later bursts into the Meeker tavern while chasing British troops.
Q 02For which crime is Sam Meeker wrongly condemned by his own army in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Stealing cattle
Stealing cattle was the charge, though Sam had run out to stop the real thieves, who overpowered him and reported him as the culprit.
Q 03What nickname does the Meeker family musket, taken to war by Sam, carry in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Brown Bess
Brown Bess was the nickname of the British Army's standard flintlock musket for more than a century. Sam's father refuses to hand his over, and the quarrel drives Sam from the house.
Q 04Sam Meeker quits which college to join the Patriot army in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Yale
Yale is where Sam picks up his rebel ideas, since talk of independence was spreading fast through the colonial colleges. His brother Tim begs him to go back to his studies.
Q 05What does Sam Meeker call British soldiers while recounting a battle in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Lobsterbacks
Lobsterbacks was a jibe at the bright red coats of British regulars. Sam uses it at the supper table while boasting about the first fight of the war.
Q 06Which Loyalist-leaning Connecticut town is home to the Meeker tavern in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Redding
Redding is a real town, and the authors drew several of the novel's neighbours from its history, though the Meeker family itself is invented.
Q 07Which girlfriend of Sam Meeker eavesdrops at the family tavern in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Betsy Read
Betsy Read comes from a leading Patriot family and says she would fight beside Sam if she could. By the end she no longer cares who wins, only that the war stops.
Q 08My Brother Sam Is Dead was named an Honor Book by which American children's literature award?
Newbery Medal
Newbery Medal judges made the novel one of their Honor Books for 1975, and it was a finalist for the National Book Award in the same year.
Q 09How is Sam Meeker executed before a watching crowd in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Shot by musket fire
Shot by musket fire at close range, Sam dies with his brother Tim looking on. Another condemned man is hanged just before him.
Q 10In My Brother Sam Is Dead, the Meekers' Anglican neighbours who back the king go by which nickname?
Tories
Tories was the label for the king's supporters, and Tim tells a British soldier he feels no fear because his town is full of them.
Q 11News of which battle does Sam Meeker bring home in the first chapter of My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Lexington
Lexington, in Massachusetts, saw the war's first clash in April 1775. When Sam's father asks who fired first, Sam has to admit he does not know.
Q 12Which Patriot general camped near the Meeker tavern refuses to spare Sam in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Israel Putnam
Israel Putnam really did choose the Meekers' town as winter quarters for about 3,000 soldiers in 1778. In February 1779 he famously escaped British dragoons by riding down a steep slope in Greenwich.
Q 13In My Brother Sam Is Dead, whose hut shelters Sam Meeker after the quarrel with his father?
Tom Warrups
Q 21Which wide river amazes Tim Meeker on his first trip away from home in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Hudson
The Hudson impresses Tim with its size and its boatmen working from skiffs, though he notices how worn out they look by evening.
Q 22How does Tim Meeker scare off raiders blocking his wagon in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
He says an escort is near
He says an escort is near and greets the gang as if they were the friendly riders he expected. They argue, a dog barks, and they bolt.
Q 23Which animals pull the Meeker wagon home from the trading trip in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Oxen
Oxen haul the load, and Tim proudly shows off to the village children how easily he handles them. Later he has to drive them home on his own.
Tom Warrups, a Native American neighbour, quietly tells Tim after church where his brother is hiding. Tim slips away and finds Sam there with his sweetheart.
Q 14What do Patriot soldiers hunting for weapons do to Tim Meeker's father in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Slash his cheek
The soldiers slash his cheek with a sword when he argues back, and Tim races off to fetch the missing gun they are demanding.
Q 15How does Tim Meeker take the musket from the hut in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
He lifts it as Sam sleeps
He lifts it as Sam sleeps, knowing his brother is a heavy sleeper, then runs. Sam wakes, chases him down and wrestles the gun back, cutting both their fingers.
Q 16Which wealthy neighbour asks Tim Meeker to carry business letters for him in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Mr. Heron
Mr. Heron is a shadowy figure whom Tim's father distrusts, so he forbids the errand. The real man behind the character is thought to have been a double agent.
Q 17Which excuse covers Tim Meeker's secret letter-carrying trip in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Going fishing
Going fishing was the cover story for a five-hour walk to Fairfield, an errand his father had flatly forbidden.
Q 18In My Brother Sam Is Dead, the letter Tim Meeker carries toward Fairfield turns out to be what?
A reliability test
A reliability test was all it held: the note said only that its safe arrival would prove the messenger could be trusted. Tim sees it only after it is wrestled from him on the road.
Q 19Where do Tim Meeker and his father go on their yearly trading trip in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Verplancks Point
Verplancks Point, a riverside trading stop in New York, is where the tavern's livestock is sold each autumn and its winter supplies are bought.
Q 20What does My Brother Sam Is Dead call the armed raiders who stop the Meekers at Ridgebury?
Cow-boys
Cow-boys, as the novel uses the name, are roadside gangs who claim to be Patriots while robbing travellers. They accuse Tim's father of feeding the enemy and beat him.
Q 24What weather slows Tim Meeker and his father on the way back from market in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Heavy snow
Heavy snow keeps the friendly riders who should guard them from turning up, so father and son push on alone. Soon the father rides ahead to scout and does not come back.
Q 25Which disease kills Tim Meeker's father aboard a prison ship in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Cholera
Cholera takes him on the prison ship, and the family only learns of it in June 1777, months after raiders seized him on the road.
Q 26According to My Brother Sam Is Dead, what did Tim Meeker's dying father say about his son Sam?
That he forgave him
That he forgave him, and that he loved his family, were the last words carried home, ending a quarrel that began when Sam left for the army.
Q 27Which friend of Tim Meeker is seized by British troops and later dies in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
Jerry Sanford
Jerry Sanford is only a boy when the British march him away, puzzling Tim, since they free the Patriot captain taken with him. He dies on a prison ship.
Q 28The real British march in My Brother Sam Is Dead set out to destroy army stores in which town?
Danbury
Danbury held the Continental Army's supply depot, and about 2,000 British soldiers rested for two hours near the Meekers' home on the way to burn it.
Q 29To which genre does the Colliers' My Brother Sam Is Dead belong?
Historical fiction
Historical fiction fits because the Meekers are invented while many of their neighbours, and the events around them, come from the records.
Q 30From which narrative point of view is young Tim Meeker's story told in My Brother Sam Is Dead?
First person
First person narration lets Tim report only what he sees and hears, in a plain, matter-of-fact voice. He sets the story down decades after the events.