Plausibility Check - Napoleon is adopted by Comanches

I've decided to work on an answer to this thread and I want to check the plausibility of my scenario.

I've decided to follow Zoidberg12's 'The American Bonapartes' TL up until the Buonapartes leave for America. I branch off by having Letizia buy passage on a Spanish merchant ship in 1784.

While en route many of the people on the ship sicken from influenza and die, including all of the Buonapartes except for Napoleon. The ship's captain then exploits Napoleon by holding him as a debt peon, and forcing him to work off his family's passage.

Eventually the captain sells Napoleon to merchants working along the Mississippi river in Spanish Louisiana. The merchants use him as an aid in there trade with native tribes. Eventually a trade goes poorly when some Osage feel cheated by the merchants, who the Osage then kill, and take Napoleon as a captive to be traded to other tribes. Traveling west, the Osage encounter a band of Kiowa who purchase Napoleon as a slave of their own.

Thus begins young Napoleons journey to rise from a slave to a chief of the Kiowa, and unit the Comanche and other western tribes under his leadership. In his old age he would still introduce himself by his family name Buonaparte, but he would be more famously known by an English to Spanish bastardization of that name, El Rompehuesos, the bone breaker.
 
Plausible or not, I would LOVE to see this timeline.

Thank you.

My main worry is of course just how I get him to become a plains tribe member. I wasn't sure if having him directly fall into the hands of the Comanche was plausible because I'm not sure about how well/often Spanish traded with Comanche directly. So I decided to have him kidnapped by another tribe first. I figured Osage would be good because I read that they would kidnap people and sell them to other tribes at time. Sadly having Osage sell Nap to Comanche seemed out of the question since I read that they had intermittent wars during the 1780s. So I figured Kiowa would be more likely. Then, as I understand it, the Comanche made an alliance with the Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache in the 1790s. This could then lead to potential situations for Nap to prove himself as a warrior and leader. Also I had to get him into the tribe while he was relatively young because, at least for the Comanche, they rarely adopted males into the tribe who were beyond puberty.

Could anyone give advice on how much Nap actually learned in school by 1784, and this what he could bring to the Plains tribes?
 
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Wow.

Never thought something like this. For me, its far beyond ASB (Nappy being sold many times ending with natives) but i would gladly read it.
 
Wow.

Never thought something like this. For me, its far beyond ASB (Nappy being sold many times ending with natives) but i would gladly read it.

Yeah, that's my concern. I don't know too much about life in Spanish north america during that time, so I made shit up that made the most sense to me. If you have other ideas please share. I'm glad people like the idea though. Plus Nap showed that he could grow his hair out long enough to style it like the plains tribes did.

Untitled.jpg
 
I do have several issues. First, by 1784 Napoleon has completed his schooling at the military academy of Brienne. He's already well educated and has a strong grasp of mathematics and history. Even assuming none of his relatives or family friends are willing to fund the required year at the École Militaire, his prospects are far far better in France and Corsica than they ever would be in America. In Europe, he has connections, family, and a future career in the French army (all be it at a lower entry level). With his connections and family there's no way he's not some kind of officer. Joining the navy is an option too since one teacher had said he would make an excellent sailor with his education. His mother may have been penniless and wanted to move to America but I just can't see Napoleon willing to walk away from a reasonably bright military career to go across the ocean and be a poor colonist.

Secondly, how did they buy passage on the ship in the first place without having the money? If they paid in advance then the captain drops him in America and waives goodbye. If the trip is paid for on arrival the money must already be waiting in America at which point Napoleon pays the fare and inherits whatever is left. (If he gets a good lawyer he might even get out of paying the dead family members' share). Since he's 15 he may be put on the next boat back to his family in Europe unless he has family friends he can stay with.

The Buonaparte family, even penniless, is not your average poor immigrant family. They have high connections to government in France, Corsica, and Switzerland and as desperate as their personal financial situation might be there's no way Napoleon ends up in debt slavery over such a trivial amount of money for the circles his family moved in.


EDIT: Not being negative, I would like to note that ASB or not I would still really like to read this timeline.
 
I do have several issues. First, by 1784 Napoleon has completed his schooling at the military academy of Brienne. He's already well educated and has a strong grasp of mathematics and history. Even assuming none of his relatives or family friends are willing to fund the required year at the École Militaire, his prospects are far far better in France and Corsica than they ever would be in America. In Europe, he has connections, family, and a future career in the French army (all be it at a lower entry level). With his connections and family there's no way he's not some kind of officer. Joining the navy is an option too since one teacher had said he would make an excellent sailor with his education. His mother may have been penniless and wanted to move to America but I just can't see Napoleon willing to walk away from a reasonably bright military career to go across the ocean and be a poor colonist.

Secondly, how did they buy passage on the ship in the first place without having the money? If they paid in advance then the captain drops him in America and waives goodbye. If the trip is paid for on arrival the money must already be waiting in America at which point Napoleon pays the fare and inherits whatever is left. (If he gets a good lawyer he might even get out of paying the dead family members' share). Since he's 15 he may be put on the next boat back to his family in Europe unless he has family friends he can stay with.

The Buonaparte family, even penniless, is not your average poor immigrant family. They have high connections to government in France, Corsica, and Switzerland and as desperate as their personal financial situation might be there's no way Napoleon ends up in debt slavery over such a trivial amount of money for the circles his family moved in.


EDIT: Not being negative, I would like to note that ASB or not I would still really like to read this timeline.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess most of your concerns should be taken up with Zoidberg12 since for now my idea just jumps off from his at first. In regards to the ship captian keeping Nap as a debt peon, he is plainly taking advantage of him. In this situation the captain pockets the money from Nap's family, 'says' Nap still owes more (perhaps for caring for sick/dead family), then holds him as a slave 'for the evils'.

It basically relies on this random captain being a total jerk, and I'm sure there where enough jerks in OTL around this time that it should be plausible.
 
Wow.

Never thought something like this. For me, its far beyond ASB (Nappy being sold many times ending with natives) but i would gladly read it.

Can we end the overuse of ASB?

Butterfly Genocide=ASB
Magic=ASB
Flat-out impossible events=ASB
An Extremely unlikely series of events /=/ ASB

Anyways....

Nappy wouldn't really do anything if he was Comanche. First of all, we don't even know if his personality would be all that similar to OTL, if he really is raised up in a completely different way of life. After that, he has no resources to do what he did with France. So.... I guess he could be a Comanche. It's just what he would do as a Comanche is irrelevant.
 
I think I'm going to start a TL on this now. In order to test the metaphorical waters of interest, here is a figure I've created for it.

General Chief Nap post.JPG
 
This is gonna be good! :D

Do you have a link to the TL's thread?

I haven't started yet. Keep an eye out over the next few days.

My working titles are:

"By the Frizzens Flash", "Of a Different Philosophy", or "By Constant Displeasure"
 
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