Registers identifying enslaved persons in the former French colonies, 1666-1880
In French colonial territories, slavery lasted until 1793 in the colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and until it was finally abolished in 1848 in the others. As civil status was denied to those who were enslaved, who were deemed to be property and instruments of production, little documentary trace was produced of their identities or lives. The regime of civil status and last names in place in France since the sixteenth century did not apply to them. There are, however, several sets of registers recording the major events in their lives, because of compulsory Catholic baptism and changes in the law when the era of slavery ended.
This collection consists of the following registers: baptisms, marriages, and burials (later: births, marriages and deaths); emancipations; persons who were newly freed; identifying details or numbers (and census return sheets); fugitive announcements. These records are significant given a huge increase in demand for ancestry searches among the diasporas of people of African descent in the past 20 years.
This nomination was inscribed in 2023 by Haiti, France and Guyana on the Memory of the World International Register and on the Regional Register for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2023 by Haiti and France.