Chassériau was born in El Limón, Samaná, in "Saint Domingue" (now the Dominican Republic). Her mother, Maria Magdalena Couret de la Blagniére, was born in Haiti but she moved with her parents to Santo Domingo when the Haitian revolution. At that time, the eastern part of Hispaniola was a French colony. There she met Bénoit Chassériau and soon they got married and moved to Samaná.