The Sierra Leoneans of Port Harcourt (the Saro) are an ethnic formation that was predominantly Krio, with token representation from some of Sierra Leone's other ethnic groups. These immigrants were attracted to this Niger Delta township for a variety of reasons at the beginning of the 20th century. Freetown, on the Sierra Leone peninsula, their spiritual home, had been established in the 18th century, by British humanitarians, as a settlement for liberated slaves, Maroons, and other exslave returnees from North America and the Caribbean. A number of these exslaves had come to England from Nova Scotia, following their unsuccessful participation in the American War of Independence on the side of the defeated British. The Freetown social experiment would in time, produce the highly differentiated community that evolved into Krio society, of which much has been written. The resettlement effort was pioneered in 1787 by various philanthropic, trading, and enlightenmentoriented interests in Britain, that were out to atone for the many wrongs of the slave trade. These individuals were motivated by the vision of a “Province of Freedom” where exslaves, inspired by European values of Christianity, commerce, and entrepreneurship, would evolve into a selfgoverning black community, that would be an object lesson for others on the African continent. As beacons of light to their unlettered neighbours, it was hoped that these returnees would serve as purveyors of western civilisation, and thus further the cause of British penetration of West Africa. The settlers who were now being repatriated to Freetown from London, Nova Scotia, and Jamaica, had thus been socialised into European values through many years of foreign residence, and this was amply reflected in their Christianity, European names, political aspirations, fondness for the English language and European forms of dress, their rugged individualism, and, above all, the immense pride they took in their extracontinental provenance and connections. In 1807, the British moved to abolish the slave trade, and naval patrols based in Freetown would now have the task of apprehending illegal slave ships, and presenting their crew before courts of ViceAdmiralty, and Mixed Commission. The rescued captives, the “Liberated Africans”, became a part of the evolving Krio society of Freetown, and, initially, the object of much derision at the hands of the returnees/settlers who believed themselves superior to these unfortunates who had never really left continental waters.