American people who changed the World

My paper is about five famous people who changed the world so dramatically that they ended up in the history books. They all come from different places, times, and backgrounds, yet they managed to leave a mark after they were gone.

I chose the subject “American people who changed the World” because I have always been interested in finding out more about the personalities who really did something with their life and who made a difference during their lifetime.

The paper is divided into five chapters, the first three are focused on the life of three American Presidents, the fourth is about Martin Luther King Jr. and the last describes the life of The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley.

Chapter I: Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809) and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776).

The third of ten children, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 into a planter family. His mother was Jane Randolph, daughter of Isham Randolph of Dungeness and his father was Peter Jefferson, a planter and surveyor in Albemarle County.

As a young child Thomas Jefferson was an enthusiastic student, often spending up to 15 hours a day studying. His interests ranged from Philosophy and Architecture to the Natural Sciences.

In 1757, when he was 14 years old, his father died. Jefferson inherited his father’s land and dozens of slaves. Anyway, at the age of 16 he entered the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg where he first met the law professor George Wythe, who became his influential mentor. Two years later he graduated with the highest honors. After leaving college he became a lawyer and later served in the Virginian state Burges.
One of his earliest political writings of significance was A Summary View of the Rights of British America. This expressed a thoughtful summary of a way America could make a settlement with Britain. It played an important role in shaping opinions in the lead up to the War of Independence.

1.2. Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence

When you say Thomas Jefferson you are thinking about The Declaration of Independence so next I will discuss about his contribution to the writing of the Declaration.

Jefferson served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress beginning in June 1775. When Congress began considering a resolution of independence in June 1776, Jefferson was appointed to a five-man committee to prepare a declaration to accompany the resolution. The committee selected Jefferson to write the first draft probably because of his reputation as a writer. The assignment was considered routine; no one at the time thought that it was a   major responsibility. Jefferson completed a  draft  in  consultation  with  other  committee  members, drawing on his own proposed draft of the Virginia Constitution, George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and other sources.
Jefferson showed his draft to the committee, which made some final revisions, and then presented  it  to  Congress  on  June  28,  1776.  After  voting  in  favor  of  the  resolution of independence on July 2, Congress turned its attention to the declaration. Over several days of debate, Congress made a few changes in wording and deleted nearly a fourth of the text, most     notably a passage critical of the slave trade, changes that Jefferson resented.