les claimed the
same exemption and resisted paying the tax. M. Patoulet, Intendent,
rendered a decision in 1683 and said: "The Mulattoes and free Negroes
claimed to be exempt from the capitation tax: I have made them pay without
difficulty. I decide that those Mulattoes born in vice should not receive
the exemption, and that for the free Negro, the master could give him
freedom but could not give him the exemption that attaches to the whites
originally from France."[14] The next year, the Mulattoes refused to pay,
and the successor of Minister Patoulet, M. Michel Begou, asked for a law to
compel them.[15] In 1696, an agreement was reached exempting the Mulattoes
and Creoles, leaving only the free black subject to the tax.[16] But in
1712, a M. Robert, in a decision on a subject, again included the
Mulattoes, without, however, mentioning the Creoles, so that only the free
Negroes and Mulattoes paid.[17] Thus they were held as a class apart. A
free Negro woman, Magdelaine Debern, further contested the matter, and in
1724, in the colony of Louisiana, won a decision exempting free Negroes and
Mulattoes, and again placing them on the same footing with the Creole. The
Creoles had a decided advantage, however, because through the favor of
those in authority, there was always a disposition to exalt them.[18]

It is in the definition of the word Creole that another great difficulty
arises. The native white Louisianian will tell you that a Creole is a white
man, whose ancestors contain some French or Spanish blood in their veins.
But he will be disputed by others, who will gravely tell you that Creoles
are to be found only in the lower Delta lands of the state, that there are
no Creoles north of New Orleans; and will raise their hands in horror at
the idea of being confused with the "Cajans," the descendants of those Nova
Scotians whom Longfellow immortalized in Evangeline. Sifting down the mass
of conflicting definitions, it appears that to a Caucasian, a Creole is a
native of the lower parishes of Louisiana, in whose veins some traces of
Spanish, West Indian or French blood runs.[19] The Caucasian will shudder
with horror at the idea of including a person of color in the definition,
and the person of color will retort with his definition that a Creole is a
native of Louisiana, in whose blood runs mixed strains of everything
un-American, with the African strain slightly apparent. The true Creole is
like the famous gumbo of the sta