As historians bring to light groups long excluded, or patronized only as victims, they are recovering the life stories of ever-increasing numbers of "unknowns" and presenting more and more unsung heroes and heroines. Clearly, the recurring theme of “average” people playing an important role in the larger scheme of American history is shown in the quote above: These “average” people become American heroes and heroines, and we choose to remember them as great memories. The Shoemaker and the Tea Party examines three major events—the American Revolution, the Boston Massacre, and the Boston Tea Party—and how they take shape as memories over time. In the chapter titled “Taming the Memory of the Revolution, 1783-1820,” Young goes on to discuss what it takes for an event to pass into public memory. So many negative events happened during the time of the American Revolution that many Americans did not want to forget as memories, such as the Boston Massacre. Young points out that instead of remembering all the negative events that happened, “exchange that anniversary for another” (Young, 1999, 108). That said, the Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770, while the Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776 – July 4 overshadowed March 5.,