During the early to mid-1800s, several villages were established around the Freetown Peninsula and other areas around the city. These villages were established primarily to settle Africans who had been freed from slave ships on the Atlantic Ocean. Many of the Africans were bound for American and Caribbean plantations. Intercepted by the Vice Admiralty, thousands of slave ships were seized and sent to Sierra Leone. Enslaved Africans on board, sometimes numbering up to 600, were freed and sent to one of the several Liberated African villages to settle and start a new life. Liberated Africans were an ethnic diverse group, originating from west and central African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Gambia, Congo, Gabon, and other places. The Liberated Africans and other historic settlers of these villages have made major contributions to the lasting cultural and heritage makeup of Freetown.