Friday Truehart was a Black man born in 1767. His mother, Dinah, was about 16 years old when he was born. In 1771, when he was almost 4 years old, the Rev. Oliver Hart, a Baptist minister, bought Friday together with his mother. The sale took place in Charleston, South Carolina, and Friday lived in Hart’s household there as a child. In 1780, Oliver Hart moved to Hopewell, New Jersey, and brought Friday with him. In Hopewell, Friday served Oliver Hart and his wife Anne, while Friday’s mother Dinah eventually went to serve in the household of Oliver Hart’s daughter-in-law Sarah Hart. Friday became a member of the Baptist Church that Oliver Hart ministered in Hopewell. He was known in Hopewell as Friday Truehart. He was manumitted in 1802, following the instructions given by Oliver Hart in his will, which stipulated that Friday would gain freedom 7 years after Hart’s death in 1795.