Heard, with his mother and three siblings Millie, Beverley and Cordelia<ref>A last brother, George Clark Heard, was born later:''From Slavery to the Bishopric in the A.M.E. Church, An Autobiography'' by William H. Heard</ref>, was sold twice as a child. When he was nine and already working as a servant in the household where his mother was a cook, both she and his elder sister died of typhoid fever. At age ten Heard was set to work as a plow boy on a farm. At fifteen, having been assaulted by a drunken "boss man" and becoming aware of the potential change in his legal status brought about by the Civil War, he fled and began living with his father, who kept a wheelwright's shop in [[Elberton, Georgia|Elberton]].<ref name="Autobio"/>
Although literacy was forbidden to slaves prior to the Civil War, Heard attended Sunday School and trained his memory by learning large amounts of the Bible by rote.<ref name="Autobio"/> InAfter 1865emancipation, while living with his father, he paid a white schoolboy toten help him learn basic literacy atcents a costlesson ofto tenteach centshim abasic lessonliteracy.<ref name="Autobio"/> He also began working for a local farmer, on terms of five dollars a month and athe lessonopportunity, each night, of reciting back to him a lesson Heard had learned over lunch. This farmer was William H. Heard, from whom Heard then took his name (he had previously been known as "Henry").<ref name="Autobio"/> Heard then attempted a similar arrangement with another local farmer, but, dissatisfied with the education he was receiving, he returned and began working at his father's shop.<ref name="Autobio"/> By this time a school had been set up in Elberton which he could attend.<ref name="Autobio"/> By following every opportunity for educational advancement which offered itself, Heard in time achieved a teaching qualification and a place at university.<ref name="Autobio"/> He attended the [[University of South Carolina]] until 1877, when all black students were removed by the state government.
