an English Unitarian minister, schoolmaster, university lecturer, and translator who co-founded Unitarian College Manchester and wrote more than thirty books. Beard published popular education manuals, theological works and, as both an editor and a journalist, engaged in vigorous Unitarian propaganda. He is best remembered for The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture (1853) and several reference volumes on a variety of topics. 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.
