As Tommy Hilfiger said, “The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it's possible to achieve the American dream.” It takes many steps and lessons learned to get to where you want to be in life and to reach your definition of success. While some may say freedom is the most valued American identity because it is said to be “The Land of the Free,” as heard in the famous Star Spangled Banner, I say progress is the most influential in making up the American identity. Progress is essential to guide us through the tragedies and events in early American history that have got us to the free land that we have today. Reconstruction was a very important and life changing event for many African Americans in the late 1800s. This all began with Abraham Lincolns plan which was aimed to reunite the nations into one and abolish slavery overall to create a land of equality. This plan was called the Ten-Percent Plan and it admitted any southern state into the union as long as 10% of its voters swore an oath of allegiance. Shortly after that, came the Freedman’s Bureau, which provided many people with medical aid, shelter, food, education and work. The fifteenth amendment also provided a sense of hope for African Americans as it prohibited the government from denying a citizen the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Although they were not easy to accomplish and took a very long time, these various events during the Reconstruction Era all demonstrated the sense of hope and expansion of equality. African Americans were finally seen to have the same opportunities as every other citizen in the United States. The Industrial Revolution was a very critical time period in developing modern American history. With the new technologies, railroads being one of the most necessary, the country saw a significant expansion of cities and big businesses within those cities. Industrialization, however, came with many flaws which were later fixed during the Progressive Movement. These big factories provided very unsafe working conditions and wages for those who labored in factories were low. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that took place on March 25, 1911 in New York City is a great example because of the many working victims that died as a resul