Seek shelter from the sun under Sierra Leone's Cotton Tree, a symbol of enduring freedom and independence located in the country's capital city of Freetown. As history records, when the city was first founded by freed slaves who had fought in the American Revolutionary War, this tree provided a central gathering point for Thanksgiving and religious services. Today it still stands in the oldest part of the capital and remains a place where locals come to make offerings to their ancestors for peace and prosperity. The tree literally represents the heart and soul of Sierra Leone, as it has for several hundred years.