Duarte was born on 26 January 1813 in Santo Domingo, Captaincy General of Santo

Domingo[1] during the period commonly called España Boba. In his memoirs, the trinitarian
José María Serra de Castro described Duarte as a man with a rosy complexion, thin lips, blue
eyes, and a golden hair that contrasted with his thick, dark moustache.[3]

Duarte was born into a middle-class family that was dedicated to maritime trade and hardware
in the port area of Santo Domingo.[4] His father was Juan José Duarte Rodríguez, a Peninsular
from Vejer de la Frontera, Kingdom of Seville, Spain, and his mother was Manuela Díez Jiménez
from El Seibo, Captaincy General of Santo Domingo; three of Duarte's grandparents were
Europeans.[a] Duarte had 9 siblings: his eldest brother, Vicente Celestino Duarte (1802–1865),
a tall, long-haired brunette man, was a store owner, woodcutter and cattle rancher who was
born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico; one of Duarte's sisters was Rosa Protomártir Duarte (1820–
1888), a performer who collaborated with him within the Independence movement. In 1802
the Duarte family migrated from Santo Domingo to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.[6] They were
evading the unrest caused by the Haitian Revolution in the island. Many Dominican families
left the island during this period.[7] Toussaint Louverture, governor of Saint-Domingue (now
Haiti), a former colony of France located on the western third of Hispaniola,[8][9] arrived to
the capital of Santo Domingo, located on the island's eastern two-thirds, the previous year and
proclaimed the end of slavery (although the changes were not permanent). At the time, France
and Saint-Domingue (the western third of the island), were going through exhaustive social
movements, namely, the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution. In occupying the
Spanish side of the island L'Ouverture was using as a pretext the previous agreements
between the governments of France and Spain in the Peace of Basel signed in 1795, which had
given the Spanish area to France.

Upon arrival in Santo Domingo, Louverture immediately sought to abolish slavery in Dominican
territory, although complete abolition of slavery in Santo Domingo came with renewed Haitian
presence in early 1822. Puerto Rico was still a Spanish colony, and Mayagüez, being so close to
Hispaniola, just across the Mona Passage, had become a refuge for wealthy migrants from
Santo Domingo like the Duartes and other native born on the Spanish side who did not accept
Haitian rule. Most scholars assume that the Duartes' first son, Vicente Celestino, was born here
at this time on the eastern side of the Mona Passage. The family returned to Santo Domingo in
1809, however, after the Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo.