These Liberated Africans were from many areas of Africa, but principally the west coast. During the 19th century, freed African Americans, some Americo Liberian 'refugees', and particularly West Indians, mainly Jamaican Maroons, also immigrated and settled in Freetown. Together these peoples created the Krio ethnicity  and an English-based creole language, (Krio), which is the lingua franca and de facto national language used among many of the ethnicities in the country.