When she was brought to this country in irons she was given the christian name Rebecka and put to work in a plantation cooking and cleaning for a sadistic misogynist named Jack. Strangely enough that situation did not last long as he began to develop some strange malady which caused his flesh to rot from his bones. He died in horrible agony. Jack's beleaguered wife did a strange thing after that she gave Rebecka her freedom and a small cabin on a piece of the families land. After that Rebecka came to be known as Mama Ghede and was well known as a voodoo root doctor. Mama Ghede healed the sick and offered advice to those who visited her, regardless of color or status. This of course did not go over well with the white menfolk who saw her growing influence troublesome. One moonlit night a group dressed in white sheets came to her door and lynched her. Even hanging from that tree her eyes wide staring down all of those men anyone could sense her strength. In a dry raspy voice she stated that her loa the lord of the dead, Baron Samedi would bring her back to exact her revenge upon the white menfolk of that town. Drunken and full of themselves the sheet clad men mocked this and went home to get a good nights sleep. Within a month every last white man in the entire town had died, from illness or disease. That small broken down shack still lies in that old field, the tree Mama Ghede hung from died and turned black as pitch and those who seek her power come from all over the south and draw a line on that old tree with a piece of chalk. They make a wish and walk away. When that wish is granted they come back and cross through the line they made. There are a great many crosses on that old tree.