Throughout the story of the United States, momentous men and women, like Henry Ford and Susan B. Anthony, have changed what we’ve come to know now as America. Significant events and laws, like the Black Codes, have completely transformed not only America but the world as we know it. But what were some of those significant events and figures that have altered the ‘land of the free’ and ‘home of the brave’? Within this essay, I will seek to uncover the historical milestones within American history throughout the 19th and 20th century. I will highlight on key events that occurred within the United States utilizing the textbook, “The American Promise: A History of the United States,” by James L. Roark. My essay will mainly focus on chapters 16 through 23, and briefly go over an essential event or figure in each chapter in order. The Black Codes. During the time of Reconstruction, America was recovering from the Civil War, and concentrating on the restoration of civil government in the southern states. While President Johnson was trying to rectify the racist rural south, in 1865, southern legislators passed a series of laws known as the black codes…show more content… By the 1920s, the railroad industry was a mere thing of the past. The automobile industry was the largest manufacturing industry in the United States, and Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, was king (Roark, 754). As stated by James Roark, “Automobiles altered the face of America,” and Henry Ford was the momentum behind it all (Roark, 754). Ford not only revolutionized transportation, but also changed the automobile business forever. Henry developed the first assembly line used for mass production that middle class Americans could actually afford. Without Henry Ford’s revolutionary assembly line, mass production would cease to exist. Henry Ford is a significant figure within American history because his ground-breaking ideas altered the methods of transportation