After attending Portsmouth Grammar School and a brief period in a French boarding-school, he joined Manchester College, York in 1820 and studied under Charles Wellbeloved, a pioneering translator of the Old Testament.
Beard published popular education manuals, theological works and, as both an editor and a journalist, engaged in vigorous Unitarian propaganda.
He wrote in simple language and attempted to translate complicated foreign affairs—such as the Haitian struggle for independence—into terms that every reader could understand.
In explaining his reasons for writing about L'Ouverture, Beard frankly admits in the 1853 volume that he does so in order to "supply the clearest evidence that there is no insuperable barrier between the light and the dark-coloured tribes of our common human species."
For Beard, L'Ouverture's ultimate failure to liberate Haiti and his untimely death are the product of unfortunate circumstances—not an indictment of his character or leadership abilities.