Sierra Leone was the British African colony established in 1787 as a settlement for freed slaves. The first settlement, called Granville Town or the Province of Freedom, was created on the coast near present-day Freetown.
The settlers included Black Poor from London, Black Loyalists who had gained freedom by supporting Britain during the American Revolutionary War, and their families. The Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor organised the resettlement, with abolitionists such as Granville Sharp supporting the idea of a community where formerly enslaved people could live independently.
The first settlement struggled with disease, shortages, conflict and disputes over land, and it was attacked and abandoned in 1789. A new settlement at Freetown was founded in 1792 by about 1,200 Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia. Jamaican Maroons arrived in 1800, and Sierra Leone became a Crown colony in 1808 after Britain abolished its slave trade. Liberia is a common mix-up, but it was founded by the American Colonization Society.