Out of the Darkness is based on the true story of a nineteenth-century child coal miner rising out of the ashes of poverty and tragedy to change the world. It’s the story of greed, love, sacrifice, faith, and the courage to push aside fear and jump into the refiner’s fire where the finest qualities of character are forged.In 1837, seven-year-old Thomas Wright followed in his family's footsteps into one of England’s most dangerous coal mines. He struggled with childhood fears, working twelve-hour days, six days a week in the darkness 500 feet below ground. That was until disaster struck, taking the lives of his boyhood friends in one of England’s most horrific accidents that changed the direction of his life and the course of history. This is the fast-moving story of a young boy overcoming the iron-fisted rule of the massively wealthy lord of the land, who not only owned much of South Yorkshire’s coal mines, and the villages in which the miners lived, but the mortgage on their lives. With the help of his family, he confronts the tyrannical system of industrial slavery, His Lordship’s brutal psychopathic enforcer, and a society that fosters the oppression of the working class. From his desperate beginnings, we follow Tom on a path to a brilliant career, his love affairs with two strong-willed women, and his courageous fight to help change the industrial slavery of the working class. And finally, his family’s escape to America to pursue their dreams in Book II of the Courageous Series. It's a masterfully told story of the great sweep of human desire for freedom and liberty, a family’s search for a better life, not just for themselves, but for their children and their children’s children. Like many immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century, they’re drawn to what Abraham Lincoln called, “the last best hope on earth.” This family has left a vast legacy traveling every walk of American life, including seven-year-old great, great, great, great grandson Cole, pictured on the front cover of this book.