One day a man told a story which touched the hearts of all. He began, "I was a timid, frail, lost, and lonely six-year-old child when I first arrived at the farm in Georgia. I would have remained that way had it not been for an extraordinary woman. She lived on the farm in a small two-room cabin where her parents resided when they were slaves. To any outsider she simply appeared as any other African-American on the farm, but to those who knew her, she had a spiritual force whose influence was felt everywhere she went.

"She was the first person called when a person got sick. She made the medicines from roots and herbs that seemed to cure almost anything. She had a family of her own, but all the children in the area felt they belonged to her. Everyone called her 'Maum' Jean, a slurred versi…