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The article discusses the nature of Atlantic creoles, or people born in the New World of parents from either Africa or Europe and their descendants, through an examination of the family histories of free man of color and carpenter Charles Decoudreau and white soldier Charles Lamerenx, both technically Creoles from New Orleans, Louisiana. The author begins by describing a civil suit filed by Decoudreau against Lamerenx regarding the latter's inability to pay for a house owned by the former. He identifies Decoudreau as mixed-race and traces his family origins to a wealthy French planter and Wolof slave woman from Senegambia. Lamerenx's connection to the Haitian Revolution is also outlined, as he was born in the French colony of Saint Domingue.