The Jonestown Massacre

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November 28, 1978 or otherwise known as Jonestown Massacre became such a significant event in history to date, during this time no more than 900 people died from a mass suicide murder, they were all a part of a cult which was known as “The Peoples Temple” in a small place called Jonestown which was in the nation of Guyana. Before the cult became the people’s temple it was just an ordinary church service lead by a man named Jim Jones who lead the service he was a pastor who later became the cult leader of the people’s temple. Jones played his role of a cult leader very well he became not only a father figure but as a god and he said that to the people of the people’s temple if you want a pastor I’ll be your pastor, if you want a father I’ll …show more content…
Jim jones was born in rural Indiana on May 31, 1931. Around the early 1950’s began his career working as a self-ordained Christian minister in small churches in Indianapolis Indiana. To raise money and to be able to financially afford and run his own church jones tried different approaches one unusual approach he did was he went to neighborhoods door to door and sold live monkeys. After several attempts, Jones finally achieved his goal and could start his own church, he opened his first own church in the mid 1950s in Indianapolis which he called “Peoples Temple.” When Jones opened his church in the mid 1950s his sermons would be filled up with different people of color, it was racially integrated something that was far off unusual around that time especially for it being a Midwestern church. Jones moved his people’s temple several times after this like for instance he first moved to norther California at Redwood Valley in the county of Mendocino. And then another move in the early 1970s when Jones decided to relocate the people’s temple headquarters to San Francisco and branched out and opened a church in Los Angeles as well. While In san Francisco is when Jim jones becomes a great and powerful preacher and the rise of his career as a cult leader and the rise of his …show more content…
Most were from members who have left the cult and now are former members who were accusing that Jones had forced them to give up their belongings, homes and as well as having custody of their children they also accused jones of beating them and staging fake cancer healings. With all of this negative comments and accusations it had made Jones paranoid and feared for his life so In 1977 he had convinced his group to move to Guyana along with him to build some type of paradise community a utopian society in which was called “Jonestown.” But this town that was said and even promised to be a paradise did not become what the jones’s followers thought it would be, the members of the people’s temple were basically treated as slaves they worked long days in the fields and had harsh punishments especially for those who were questioning his authority. They were being watched always by guards who were armed and forced to do things they did not want to do. There was no way-out Jones did not want them to leave and he even confiscated their passports. At this point Jim Jones had lost
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