James Lovell desperately wants to help the American cause, but alone in a cold, dark cell in the Boston Stone Jail, his dreams seem a faint illusion.

In icy March winds, pounded by the Americans’ cannon, General Howe evacuates British troops and Loyalists from Boston. James Lovell is forced into a ship bound for Halifax, while his father and family take passage for the British stronghold in the ship’s upper berth. In jail in Halifax, James can only write letters and pray for release, hoping General George Washington will hear his appeal.

In The Remarkable Cause, experience conflict and courage in the roots of the American Revolution:

• protests over the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts

• hanging in effigy, tar and feathering

• tension of the Boston Massacre trials

• troops charging Bunker Hill

• dreadful conditions in British jails for James and his fellow prisoners

• the strength of a friend, Ethan Allen of the Green Mountain Boys

• James’s passion for his family, in his own words

Jean C. O’Connor, a high school English teacher for over thirty years, researched this story using letters, journals, and documents written by James Lovell and his contemporaries. Inspired by a few sentences in her grandmother’s journal, Jean discovered details of that time far away—yet still relevant. Images from early newspapers and pictures enliven the narrative’s pages.