An English settlement was established in the Roanoke Island area of North Carolina in 1584, but it soon vanished. A paper could try to determine what happened to the so-called Lost Colony. Students into Indian history can write about the Town Creek Indian mound built prior to 1500 or the discovery of Indian canoes at Lake Phelps. Those canoes date back to 2,430 BC. The adventurous types can write about Blackbeard the pirate, who terrorized the Carolina coastline around the early 18th century.
Topics about North Carolina in the colonial times could discuss the Edenton Tea Party in 1774 or the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in 1776. That was the first battle of the revolutionary war to take place in North Carolina, and was a resounding victory for the Americans. North Carolina has preserved many historic sites. One is the antebellum plantation at Somerset Place in Washington County. The mansion stands along with slave quarters, the hospital and several other outbuildings. A paper could cover its history and what happened to the people that lived there.
North Carolina played some role in all of the wars fought in the eastern United States. Topics for research can start with the French-Indian wars. Fort Dobbs in Iredell County was the site of an attack by the Cherokee Indians in 1760. Fort Fisher in Wilmington was a vital part of the Confederacy effort to break the Union blockade during the Civil War. When it fell in 1865, the fate of the south followed suit according to the website North Carolina Historic Sites.
North Carolina has produced three presidents. Andrew Jackson, elected in 1828, James Polk, elected in 1845, and Andrew Johnson are all potential history paper subjects. Johnson, who took over as president when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, is usually identified with Tennessee. He was raised in Tennessee, but he was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Aviation buffs might be interested in the Wright Brothers, who flew the first airplane at Kitty Hawk in 1903. The writer Thomas Wolfe inspired readers with his novel, "Look Homeward Angel." The Thomas Wolfe Memorial site in Asheville, and its website, could be a source of extra information.