Americo-Liberians are a
Liberian ethnicity of
African-American descent. The sister ethnic group of Americo Liberians are the
Sierra Leone Creole people who are of African-American, West Indian, and liberated African descent. Americo Liberians trace their ancestry to free-born and formerly enslaved African-Americans (who called themselves Americo Liberians) who immigrated in the 19th century to become
founders of Liberia and other colonies along the coast in places that would become
Cote d'Ivoire and
Sierra Leone. Later, these African Americans integrated 5,000 liberated Africans called Congos (descendents of former slaves from the
Congo Basins who never made it to the Americas) and 346
Barbadian immigrants into the
hegemony. Like the
Creoles of
Freetown, Americos rarely intermarried with Natives. For much of the first 133 years after independence, the Republic of Liberia was a
one-party state ruled by the Americo-Liberian dominated
True Whig Party.