Writing Homework Help

Option #1: A Notable Person: Biography in Essay

For the final Portfolio Project, option #1, write a paper about a person in a period of United States history from exploration to 1877, and explain a challenge the person faced, what that challenge was, and how the person did or did not overcome the challenge.

• Do not write a complete biography of the person’s life.
• Focus on a challenge faced by the person.
• Describe the historical, social, governmental or personal circumstances of the challenge.
• Explain how the person interacted with the challenge. 
  • Did the person meet the challenge and succeed?
  • Did the challenge defeat the person?
  • Explain the resolution of the challenge. Was it resolved? Did it continue?
  • Does the challenge the person faced continue to challenge American society today? Explain how so or why the challenge no longer exists.

This paper must include a discussion of the following topics:

• a thorough summary of the event including the incidents that took place and the key individuals involved;
• the importance of the event in the scheme of U.S. history; and
• the impact of the event, person, or time in U.S. History.

Simple examples of historical figures and their challenges (do not be limited by this list):

• Christopher Columbus and the challenge of exploration
• Pocahontas and the challenge of Jamestown colony
• Phillis Wheatley and the challenge of being a small female in colonial America
• Abigail Adams and the challenge of the Revolutionary War
• Thomas Jefferson and the challenge of living in a slave society
• Dolly Madison and the challenge of living with a President, James Madison, during a war
• Andrew Jackson and the challenge of Indian removal
• William T. Johnson and the challenge of being a free black in antebellum Mississippi
• James K. Polk and the challenge of the Mexican War
• James Tallmadge and the challenge of the Tallmadge Amendment
• Charles Finney and the challenge of being president of Oberlin College
• John Brown and the challenge of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
• A Civil War soldier (North or South) and the challenge of the Civil War
• A freedmen (male or female) and the challenge of Reconstruction