 Lê Văn Duyệt was born in either 1763 or 1764 in Định Tường ( present day Tiền Giang ) , a regional town in the Mekong Delta , in the far south of Vietnam . His parents were ordinary peasants whose ancestors came from Quảng Ngãi Province in central Vietnam during the southwards expansion of the Nguyễn Lords . Duyệt was born in a poor family , and he tended buffaloes during his childhood . Attracted by the possibilities of the " New South " , the family then moved to Gia Định . 
