As a pacifist, Mr. Meeker feels withdrawn from the political affairs taking place among Tories and Patriot, and he urges his sons to not get involved, as he believes war only results in death.

As the war continues to erupt throughout the colonies Tim joins his father in traveling to Verplanck's Point, a common place for the Meekers to sell cattle and goods.

Bald, and Dawn B. Sova, the widespread controversy surrounding My Brother Sam Is Dead followed the novel's popular usage in elementary school curriculums in the late 1980s.

In March 2000 in Springfield, Oregon, Jerry and Kelly Dunn lobbied to get “My Brother Sam Is Dead” removed from the districts’ public schools after discovering the novel was read in their daughter's fifth-grade classroom.

In the Jefferson County Public Schools (Colorado), Marcia Super filed a challenge to My Brother Sam Is Dead after discovering that the novel was being taught in her granddaughter's fifth grade classroom.

At Antioch Elementary School (California), Judy Nelson filed several complaints surrounding the use of My Brother Sam Is Dead in her son's fifth-grade social studies class.

At McSwain Elementary School (Virginia), two parents, Linda Bailey and Beverly Dudley expressed their concerns about the use of profanity and graphic descriptions of violent war stories that take place within the novel.

Two parents, Michael Harries and Richard Antcliff noted the novel's inclusion of profane language like “‘damn,’ bastard,’ and ‘hell,” and urged that the book be immediately removed from the elementary curriculum.

Debby Stangaroni, the parent to a sixth-grade student at the school, voiced specific concerns claiming that her child was left “disturbed” after reading the book in class.