Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?
A. Beard is the inventor of the automatic railroad coupler, also known as the knuckle coupler.
B. Andrew Beard spent the first sixteen years of his life as a slave on a small farm in Alabama.
C. Beard’s automated coupling of railroad cars has been credited with saving many lives.
D. Beard invested the money he made from his plow inventions into a profitable real-estate business.