Scotia were offered the opportunity to relocate, and about half chose to move to the new colony. Today the descendants of these pioneers are known as the Sierra Leone Creole people, or Krios. They live primarily in the Western Area of Freetown. Black Loyalists from the American South brought their languages to Freetown, such as Gullah from the Low Country and African American Vernacular English. Their lingua franca was a strong influence on the descendants of this community, who developed Krio as a language. Many of the Sierra Leone Creoles or Krios can trace their ancestry directly to their Black Loyalist ancestors. An example of such an ancestor is Harry Washington, likely born about 1740 in The Gambia, enslaved as a young man and shipped to Virginia. He was purchased by George Washington in 1763; he escaped about 1776 in Virginia to British lines, eventually making his way to New York. He was among free blacks evacuated to Nova Scotia by the British following the war. He later took the opportunity to migrate to Freetown in Africa. There by 1800 he became the leader of a rebellion against colonial rule and faced a military tribunal. His descendants are part of the Creole population, who make up 5.8% of the total. Notable Black Loyalists Stephen Blucke, commanding officer of the Black Company of Pioneers David George, American Baptist preacher Abraham Hazeley, Nova Scotian settler Boston King, first Methodist missionary to indigenous Africans Moses Wilkinson, American Methodist preacher John Kizell, American immigrant to Sierra Leone John Marrant, Methodist preacher Cato Perkins, American missionary to Sierra Leone Thomas Peters, one of the "Founding Fathers" of the nation of Sierra Leone Colonel Tye, soldier Harry Washington, freedman who resettled in Sierra Leone after enslavement to George Washington In popular culture The saga of the Black Loyalists inspired Lawrence Hill's 2007 novel The Book of Negroes (published as Someone Knows My Name in the United States). It won the 2008 Commonwealth Award for Fiction. In the second episode of the 2016 miniseries Roots, protagonist Kunta Kinte is a Black Loyalist and briefly serves in Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment. See also Black refugee (War of 1812) Black Nova Scotians History of Nova Scotia Birchtown, Nova Scotia Billy (slave) References Cassandra Pybus, Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty, New York: Beacon, 2006 Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: Britain,