Captain Richardson is a time traveler in the Outlander books. Why did he travel to the Revolutionary War?
During Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, we learn that Captain Richardson is a time traveler. He has come back to the Revolutionary War with one goal in mind.
It’s always been clear that Richardson is up to something in the books. He starts off as a British officer, sending William on a dangerous mission that involves passing on notes to known Rebels. Then he switches sides, and he is somehow involved in the Benjamin Grey storyline.
As we learn that he’s a time traveler, we also find out what he wants. Is it the same as Claire and Jamie, or will he be on the opposite side to their wishes?
Captain Richardson wants the British to win in the Outlander books
We learn that Richardson is on the side of the British, despite turning coat and joining the Rebels. He switched sides to help prevent the Americans winning, although it’s not clear if he is going to succeed.
Why does he want the British to win, though? Does he really think that America will be better off remaining under the control of the Crown? Not really. There is one specific reason he wants the British to win.
It all comes down to slavery. Captain Richardson wants to bring an end to slavery sooner in America. Of course, there are questions about why he wouldn’t go back to a time before slavery took a hold in Britain and America, but that’s for another post. He thinks that Britain winning the Revolutionary War will lead to slavery coming to an end sooner than the American Civil War.
It certainly could, but that doesn’t mean everything else will be better. There are a lot of moments in history where we think events turning out in a different way could be better, but we simply don’t know. Maybe history played out the way that it was supposed to so there wasn’t someone worse than what we ended up with.
Why would Captain Richardson go to the Revolutionary War for his plans in the Outlander books?
There are a lot of questions about Captain Richardson in the Outlander books. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone certainly answered a few questions about whether we could trust him or not. However, it also left us with a lot of new questions.
It turns out that he’s a time traveler. Bree and Roger think that he’s from their time and that he was an architect at Lallybroch in the 1970s and 1980s. However, they think he’s had plastic surgery and that he’s after the Jacobite gold.
We’ve also found out that he wants to abolish slavery sooner than the American Civil War. That leads to a big question. Why would he come to the time of the Revolutionary War when slavery started much earlier than this? Why not go to the 1600s?
Captain Richardson wouldn’t be in the Outlander books if it was earlier
Okay, so there is an obvious answer. We wouldn’t have Captain Richardson in the books if he chose to go to 1619, which would be a better time to stop the colonies from growing slavery to what it would become. Claire and Jamie aren’t in that time period, and we have no reason to go that far back in time.
So, it has to be the Revolutionary War.
I also think going too far back in time wouldn’t help matters. It’s like Otter Tooth going too far back to get the Native Americans on his side to help prevent what happened to them. On his own, Richardson would know that he couldn’t convince a lot of people not to do something.
The Revolutionary War is closer to when Britain abolished slavery
Claire has already shared that Britain abolishes slavery before the Americans. That’s something she told Jamie in Outlander Season 3 when in Jamaica. The Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1834. However, the fight to end slavery started sooner, with the slave trade coming to an end in 1807. It wasn’t until after the Civil War that America ended slavery in the 1860s.
We’re into the late 1770s in Outlander right now. The Revolutionary War ends in the 1780s. It makes sense then that Richardson would time his travel with something close to when Britain ends slavery. If the British win the Revolutionary War, it would mean the slave trade would be abolished sooner in America as well as in Britain.
At least, that seems to be his thinking. It does make more sense than traveling back to 1619, but there’s no guarantee that it would actually bring an end to slavery sooner than it does happen in America in real life.
