Records of French slaves inscribed on U.N. world heritage register

PARIS (AP) — Several hundred documents and items giving the details of victims of slavery in France’s colonial empire is being added to UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” register. The register was set up in 1992 “to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity.” This latest addition, which the U.N. cultural agency approved last week, marks the first time that France has pushed the inscription of the documents that were archived in their modern-day overseas territories. The documents date from between the 17th and 19th centuries, from places including the nations of Haiti, Mauritius and Senegal. They represent a fraction of what the French Foundation for the Memory of Slavery says were some 4 million people enslaved in the French colonial empire.