Jonestown

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/jonestown

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Jonestown built?1974
2. How heavy is Jonestown?November 18, 1978
3. What is the location?Northwest District, Guyana, South America
4. What is the total deaths?918 people, including 909 in Jonestown itself
5. What was Jonestown and where was it located?Jonestown was a community in Guyana, started in 1974 by Jim Jones. It was meant to be a socialist utopia where people could live together and work the land.
6. Who was Jim Jones and what did he promise to his followers?Jim Jones was the leader of the Peoples Temple. He promised a racially integrated, just community with social justice and communal living.

Utopia: An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.
Authoritarian Control: A system of government or leadership characterized by strict obedience to authority.
Revolutionary Suicide: Jim Jones's term for the mass deaths, framing it as a political act.
Mass Murder-Suicide: A term describing an event where a perpetrator kills multiple people and then themselves.