The Sierra Leone Creole people, known in Krio as Krio pipul, constitute an ethnic group within Sierra Leone. They are the descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Liberated African slaves who established themselves in the Western Area of Sierra Leone from 1787 to approximately 1885. This colony was founded by the British, with the backing of abolitionists, under the auspices of the Sierra Leone Company, intended as a haven for freed individuals. The settlers named their new community Freetown. Currently, the Sierra Leone Creole population represents 1.2 percent of the total population of Sierra Leone.