The arrival of thousands of men, women and children released from slave ships led to a rapid expansion in the ethnic and cultural diversity of Freetown's population. A breakdown of the origins of 638 children in schools in Sierra Leone highlights the presence, by the early 1820s, of a significant number of people of Igbo and Efik origin with a smaller proportion of 'Accoo' or Yoruba. The number of Yoruba arriving as 'recaptives' or 'liberated Africans' in Sierra Leone increased rapidly from the 1820s as a result of jihad and the collapse of the state of Oyo (Jones, 1990, pp. 50-52; Lovejoy, 2016, pp. 83-85, p. 136, p. 147; Lovejoy, 2012, pp. 140-143; Fyle, 2011, pp. 48-54). The number of enslaved Muslims was significant among those who were forcibly relocated to Sierra Leone, including Ali Eisami Gazirmabe, who originated from Gazir in Borno, in what is now Northeastern Nigeria. In the narrative dictated to Koelle in Sierra Leone, Ali Eisami, who became a Christian and adopted the name of William Harding, indicated that his father was a mallam, or Islamic cleric. While the Christian identity of the colony has typically been given most emphasis in historical literature, the work of Gibril Cole and David Skinner emphasizes the importance of Muslim influence in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Sierra Leone (Curtin, 1967, p. 7, p. 193, pp. 199-216; Cole, 2013, pp. 1-7; Skinner, 2009).  
Fyfe has argued that men, women and children uprooted from their areas of origin were attracted to a Christian message which encouraged them 'to strive for heavenly and earthly prizes' (Fyfe, 1961, pp. 77-78). However, the type of Christian influences encountered by these Africans varied depending on a range of factors, including the date of their arrival and their age and gender. Individuals, classified as 'recaptives' and 'liberated Africans' in contemporary accounts, were not given their freedom on arrival but entered into lengthy