20180410230435wa_lifestory
Native americans in the United States. Fictional but based of Non-Fictional events
For my history class, I have been assigned a paper regarding native americans in the 19th century. In this assignment, my job is to research the experiences of native americans in the 19th century, and to create a his- torically plausible but fictional life story on the basis of that research.
The final product for the assignment consists of two equally impor- tant parts:
- the fictional life story itself, and
- a “historical note” containing a short description of how your char- acter’s life story reflects the realities of 19th-century America and explanatory notes on events and historical circumstances.
Below I have attached the rubric for the assignment
writing assignment
HIST1015
Spring 2018
See the syllabus for due dates.
In this assignment, your job is to research the experiences of your
team’s demographic group in the 19th century, and to create a his-
torically plausible but fictional life story on the basis of that research.
Each member of the team will create his/her own life story.1 1 However, two or more team members
may collaborate on a single life story, if
they all agree and if they get their col-
laboration approved ahead of time. The
deadline for petitioning to collaborate is
Thursday 3/22.
The team’s role is to help each member think about what is plau-
sible, to discuss and share good sources of historical information, and
to comment on one another’s drafts.
The final product for the assignment consists of two equally impor-
tant parts:
Checklist, life story:
• Font: Times New Roman 12 pt or
similar.
• Margins: One inch.
• Double-spaced.
• Page numbers.
• 1,000–1,600 words (3–5 pages).
• Draft accessible on Google Docs.
Checklist, historical note:
• Font: Times New Roman 12 pt or
similar.
• Citation style: Chicago.
• Margins: One inch.
• Double-spaced.
• Page numbers.
• Intro and “glossary.”
• Citations and bibliography.
• Minimum 5 reliable, solid
sources; minimum 3 books or
academic articles (i.e., max 2
websites.)
• 700–1,000 words (2–3 pages).
• Draft accessible on Google Docs.
The final draft submitted on D2L
should combine the two docu-
ments into one. First the life
story, then the historical note. Both
should be clearly marked.
1. the fictional life story itself, and
2. a “historical note” containing a short description of how your char-
acter’s life story reflects the realities of 19th-century America and
explanatory notes on events and historical circumstances.
This is a fairly demanding assignment, and requires you to start
thinking and planning early.
The structure of the historical note is as follows:
• A short description (about 2–3 paragraphs, 1–2 pages) of the histor-
ical realities that shaped the life of a person in your team’s demo-
graphic group generally and your chosen character specifically.
• A glossary-style point-by-point explanation that a) offers more in-
formation about specific historical events or trends, where relevant,
and b) explains why events that happen to your character or the
actions he/she takes are plausible. Each specific claim made should
get an entry. For each, can you cite similar events happening / sim-
ilar actions being taken by real people in this demographic group?
If not, what evidence can you produce that this is nevertheless plau-
sible?
The historical note is where you show your research chops; citations
and a full bibliography are crucial in demonstrating that you have done
your research.
life story writing assignment 2
Life story
The life story will recount the adventures of your chosen character. Feel free to be creative! Add im-
ages, maps, links to video, music;
do a drawing; film yourself doing
an interpretive dance if you like.
If you want to create a substantial
non-textual portion of the assign-
ment that will replace part of the
text, that may be possible; come dis-
cuss it with me.
The character must:
• be fictional; you may not write about a real person.
• live during the 19th century, with the bulk of the story happening
before the end of the Civil War.
• fit the demographic parameters assigned to your team.
• have a plausible, though not necessarily typical, life.
The question of plausibility is often challenging: what exactly was
possible for an upper-class woman or for a free African American
man? Thinking about this is one of the most important parts of the
assignment, and I expect you to engage the question seriously.
A tip: Don’t get bogged down in
detail. It can be VERY difficult to
find out exact specifics of how an
individual life might unfold. You
are only required to do your best to
make this plausible within the con-
straints of available time. However,
this is NOT a blank check to not do
research.
That said, you should be using your imagination as well! You don’t
have to make your character the average representative of the group,
as long as you show you understand where your character would fall
in the spectrum of that group’s experiences. Give your character a soul
and a personality as well as a historical context!
***
You might think of the of the life story as a work of historical fic-
tion, and of the historical note as the author’s note and glossary at the
back of the book. For example, Ariana Franklin’s A Murderous Proces-
sion (the second novel in her Mistress of the Art of Death series about
a female pathologist in early medieval Europe) has an author’s note
that first contains some notes on the historical plausibility of her main
character and some notes on where she’s deviated from actual histori-
cal chronology, and then provides thumbnail biographies of key (real)
characters and of a number of terms important in the story (explain-
ing, for example, who the Cathars were, and providing some notes on
premodern surgery.)
I have posted Franklin’s author’s note on D2L as a rough model.
Yours won’t be exactly like that—I want more coherence in the dis-
cussion of historical realities, for one, and you are required to provide
citations—but perhaps it will be helpful nevertheless.
On the basis of their research, each team will craft a presentation that
highlights the experiences of the team’s demographic group and the
historical parameters that shaped their lives. The presentations may
(and should) draw from the life stories as appropriate, though obvi-
ously you won’t be able to recount each story. We will discuss the
presentations more in class. You should aim for about 7 minutes.
To help you think about what a
good presentation is like and what
presentation software you may want
to choose, we will have a special
presentation on presentations and
presentation technology by ASSETT
in class sometime around the mid-
dle of the semester.
life story writing assignment 3
Life story
Peter Sewell, or Peter the Pirate as he later became known, was born in 1801 in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He
grew up fishing, but he always was an adventurous soul. By the late 1820s, Peter had moved on to whaling
ships, where he came into contact with a great variety of people [. . . events happening . . . ]
After almost dying in a shipwreck, Peter decided to become a landlubber. [. . . twists & turns . . . ] He
ended up in as a laborer in Oberlin, Ohio, where in 1839 he heard the renowned minister Charles Grandison
Finney preach about the need to not only repent but also reform one’s behavior and take action against
moral wrongs. Prompted by Finney’s fiery sermon, Peter became an evangelical Christian and got involved
in the abolitionist movement. [. . . rest of essay . . . ]
Historical note
On being a laborer in the early 19th century [This is the section where you discuss the historical
context of the life of someone in Peter’s demographic group and explain how his life story is plausible]
Fishing in Massachusetts Fishing was an important part of the Massachusetts economy, and employed
X number of people in the early 1800s (Smith 2002).
Whaling Whaling was a growth industry in the early 19th century, as whale oil was used in a wide variety
of products. . . Whaling was also a line of work that “drew a multiracial and multiethnic crew”. . . (Miller
1999, 25).
Charles Grandison Finney Finney was a well-known preacher of the Second Great Awakening, a re-
ligious revival that swept the United States in the first decades of the 19th century. Like many preachers
of the Second Great Awakening, Finney emphasized that everyone can be saved and that it is a Christian’s
responsibility to also try to make the earthly world more like the Kingdom of God by working against injus-
tices and suffering. Finney was most famous for the revivals he held in the eastern United States, especially
in New York, the late 1820s and early 1830s; in 1835 he accepted a position at Oberlin College, where he
continued to advocate against slavery and for other reform causes (Doe 2012).
. . . more (More historical explanations can only make your essay better. Keep them concise and to the point,
though.)
Bibliography
Doe, Jane. 2012. “Charles Grandison Finney.” In The Best Encyclopedia Ever, vol. 3, 30–32. Gale Publishing.
Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Miller, Mary. 1999. Whaling with Pirates. New York: Pirate Press.
Smith, John. 2002. “Good Old Times in Massachusetts.” Massachusetts Journal 26(1): 26–51.
- Instructions
Historical note
Life story
Presentation
Example: The Life and Times of Peter the Pirate