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Slavery of Faith
Slavery Of Faith...the quietly kept story of a young woman's escape through the jungles of Jonestown, Guyana the morning of the massacre November 18, 1978 and her struggles to live in the aftermath. November 18, 2008 marks 30 years since the Jonestown, Guyana Massacre/Suicides and the death of its founder, the Reverend Jim Jones.
Escaping Jonestown, Guyana the morning of November 18,1978 with nine others, Leslie Wagner-Wilson then twenty one years old, trekked thirty seven miles through the jungle with a 40-pound care package strapped to her back with a sheet, her son, later to be known as the youngest survivor of Jonestown. That evening, she would be told that Jonestown was gone along with her plan to escape and return with her father, Richard Wagner who was a part of the Concerned Relatives to free the rest of her family. Amongst the carnage would be her husband, mother, brother, sister, niece, nephew, sister in law, brother in law and the friends she had grown up and loved since 13.
Slavery of Faith reveals the life of a thirteen year old coming of age in the heart of People's Temple Disciples of Christ Church where the pastor Jim Jones, exhorted his followers to consider him divine and to call him "Father" while he touted his extra-marital affairs from the pulpit. The world of Jim Jones was one of inverted ideals, isolation and alienation. However, what began as a church that appealed to peoples inner spirit to help others, was turned into a living hell. Yet it was a place she would go, half a continent away, to be with her 2 year old son, who'd been taken to Jonestown by Jim Jones as he made his exodus to Guyana. It shares the horrors of Jonestown - the labor punishment squads, suicide drills, sleep deprivation, drugging, and humiliations. It also takes the reader through the escape that she says was revealed to her in the spirit.
Thirty years since Jonestown, Slavery of Faith also chronicles her return to the U.S. under a veil of secrecy in fear of the "death squads," her fight to maintain her faith in her most darkest hours; suffering survivors guilt, drug addiction, a family suicide, and finally redemption. It shares her journey through psychological and spiritual jungles to reach a place of remembrance-- to "live their love and not their deaths." Faith has allowed her the resiliency to as she states "tuck and roll" and discover that through pain, tragedy and joy, her life has found divine order.
Escaping Jonestown, Guyana the morning of November 18,1978 with nine others, Leslie Wagner-Wilson then twenty one years old, trekked thirty seven miles through the jungle with a 40-pound care package strapped to her back with a sheet, her son, later to be known as the youngest survivor of Jonestown. That evening, she would be told that Jonestown was gone along with her plan to escape and return with her father, Richard Wagner who was a part of the Concerned Relatives to free the rest of her family. Amongst the carnage would be her husband, mother, brother, sister, niece, nephew, sister in law, brother in law and the friends she had grown up and loved since 13.
Slavery of Faith reveals the life of a thirteen year old coming of age in the heart of People's Temple Disciples of Christ Church where the pastor Jim Jones, exhorted his followers to consider him divine and to call him "Father" while he touted his extra-marital affairs from the pulpit. The world of Jim Jones was one of inverted ideals, isolation and alienation. However, what began as a church that appealed to peoples inner spirit to help others, was turned into a living hell. Yet it was a place she would go, half a continent away, to be with her 2 year old son, who'd been taken to Jonestown by Jim Jones as he made his exodus to Guyana. It shares the horrors of Jonestown - the labor punishment squads, suicide drills, sleep deprivation, drugging, and humiliations. It also takes the reader through the escape that she says was revealed to her in the spirit.
Thirty years since Jonestown, Slavery of Faith also chronicles her return to the U.S. under a veil of secrecy in fear of the "death squads," her fight to maintain her faith in her most darkest hours; suffering survivors guilt, drug addiction, a family suicide, and finally redemption. It shares her journey through psychological and spiritual jungles to reach a place of remembrance-- to "live their love and not their deaths." Faith has allowed her the resiliency to as she states "tuck and roll" and discover that through pain, tragedy and joy, her life has found divine order.
203 pages, Paperback
First published January 9, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 30, 2016
This was the third memoir of a Jonestown survivor and each book I've read shows how varied of a group they were. From elderly black Hyacinth Thrash, to white young Debbie Layton, and now the teenaged to early twenties Leslie Wagner Wilson. Each had their own experiences and their own reasons for joining the church. What was interesting to me was that Leslie was not as devoted or brainwashed as others were. In fact until just before the move to Jonestown Leslie distanced herself from the church. But she moved to Guyana to see her young son and estranged husband. She describes how life in the commune was. At first it was not so bad. Food was plentiful there was hard work but members felt rewarded for it and like they were part of something bigger than themselves. But as more people came, things grew worse. Jim Jones sank into madness and drug addiction and the population began to wear down. Leslie and her husband grew apart, both had affairs, Leslie tried to escape and wrote a letter expressing her wish to leave and was shamed and humiliated cut off from her family and friends. Through it all though Leslie maintained a faith not in Jim Jones but in the real God and when an opportunity to escape was given she took it, strapping her young son to her back and leaving with a small group of others. It was November 18th and would be the last day of Jonestown. She tells the tale of her harrowing escape, the fear that they would be followed hunted down and tortured for their escape attempt. Even after news reached them the fear never left. As reports said there were 500 dead and 500 ran to the jungle, and the numbers changed. There was also those still alive in California who might come for them too. What followed for Leslie was heartbreaking. Suffering from PTSD Leslie sinks into depression, survivors guilt and eventually drug addiction. She goes from man to man lost and confused, contemplating suicide on Mother's Day. Her son who she smuggled out also struggled to recover from the many traumas he faced. His mother in and out of his life, his father dead and gone. While mostly dark, the story is also one of hope. Leslie never lost sight of her faith and managed to pull her life together and as she states at the end of the story finally find peace with herself and her past.
September 20, 2012
Leslie definitely has a story worth telling, and can give an insight like no other into the lives of the people of the Jonestown massacre, unfortunately I just can't bring myself to finish this book. I read around 40 some odd pages or so. I just feel that her book wasn't yet ready for publication. It needed more proof reading, corrections, and time frames put in order before it could be called a complete book. This could have been a five star read, and should have been, unfortunately not enough attention was given to the writing. I will usually allow mistakes like this to slide, but I just couldn't handle all the mistakes in this. I was trying to force my way through it, but was slowed down because I had to go back piecing almost each sentence together in the correct way to make sense of it. I have seen worse, and also didn't finish those books. If this subject is one that interests you enough that you're willing to get through it then you may feel that it was worth the struggle. While I feel sad that this event was allowed to take place, and my heart goes out to Leslie this just isn't one of my passionate interests, so I'm throwing in the towel.
October 12, 2024
it’s hard to review a memoir because you can’t judge someone’s life but i really wanted more of the nitty gritty.
the book has a lot of grammatical errors, however it’s easy to understand what she is trying to say but despite it all, it was definitely a page turner.
the book has a lot of grammatical errors, however it’s easy to understand what she is trying to say but despite it all, it was definitely a page turner.
November 20, 2017
At this point I've read several comprehensive accounts of Jonestown, and am working my way through the personal accounts because it is such a massive event involving so many people, there is
mountain of information out there to absorb. Most of the personal accounts are not written by experienced, professional writers; they are written by survivors. So with that in mind, I read this narrative knowing that it likely was not going to be written as well as Jeff Guinn's "Road to Jonestown" or Julia Scheeres's "1000 Lives."
Wagner-Wilson does a fairly good job with Part 1 of her book where she discusses the events leading up to her escape from Jonestown the day Leo Ryan visited. Part 2 unfortunately, doesn't feel as well developed. There are times when Wagner-Wilson will describe meeting a man, marrying him, having a child with him, and then divorcing him, all in a single paragraph. The same is true with her housing situation. She moves here (God is good!), then something happens and she faces a problem, moves again, (God is good!) she's changed jobs, changed cities, changed religions, changed men, etc etc. It's a whirlwind of details. Clearly, her experience in the Peoples Temple and her PTSD are behind what fuels the chaos and constant changes in her life. But she never hit that critical moment that I fully expected would come -- when she got into therapy and got help. This woman desperately needs some therapy to process this tragedy, so she can stop running from it.
Secondarily the book is riddled with wrongly chosen words, like the sentence will say "then" instead of "when." Basically typos. Toward the end of the book she mentions that a friend suggested the theme of "slave to faith" which probably explains all those protestations of "God is good" throughout the book. I don't think it was the best way to go with the narrative. She is less a slave to faith a more a "waif amid forces."
The book was published in 2008 and at that time Wagner-Wilson was both a vegan and a real-estate agent. I would wager that neither of those things is still true given the course of the rest of the story. I also learned that her oldest son is in prison for life, apparently for murder. According to what I read on the Jonestown website, she still is in touch with him and providing for him as she is able.
All of this is not to say that I didn't like Wagner-Wilson or admire her determination. Living through what she did I am not surprised her life took the course it did. I just wish she had had a bit more insight into that -- been able to get professional help, gain some perspective before she wrote the story. Left out a few of those moves that were hard to follow as a reader.
It's a shame our government didn't respond with more compassion and assist the survivors to reclaim their lives and equilibrium.
mountain of information out there to absorb. Most of the personal accounts are not written by experienced, professional writers; they are written by survivors. So with that in mind, I read this narrative knowing that it likely was not going to be written as well as Jeff Guinn's "Road to Jonestown" or Julia Scheeres's "1000 Lives."
Wagner-Wilson does a fairly good job with Part 1 of her book where she discusses the events leading up to her escape from Jonestown the day Leo Ryan visited. Part 2 unfortunately, doesn't feel as well developed. There are times when Wagner-Wilson will describe meeting a man, marrying him, having a child with him, and then divorcing him, all in a single paragraph. The same is true with her housing situation. She moves here (God is good!), then something happens and she faces a problem, moves again, (God is good!) she's changed jobs, changed cities, changed religions, changed men, etc etc. It's a whirlwind of details. Clearly, her experience in the Peoples Temple and her PTSD are behind what fuels the chaos and constant changes in her life. But she never hit that critical moment that I fully expected would come -- when she got into therapy and got help. This woman desperately needs some therapy to process this tragedy, so she can stop running from it.
Secondarily the book is riddled with wrongly chosen words, like the sentence will say "then" instead of "when." Basically typos. Toward the end of the book she mentions that a friend suggested the theme of "slave to faith" which probably explains all those protestations of "God is good" throughout the book. I don't think it was the best way to go with the narrative. She is less a slave to faith a more a "waif amid forces."
The book was published in 2008 and at that time Wagner-Wilson was both a vegan and a real-estate agent. I would wager that neither of those things is still true given the course of the rest of the story. I also learned that her oldest son is in prison for life, apparently for murder. According to what I read on the Jonestown website, she still is in touch with him and providing for him as she is able.
All of this is not to say that I didn't like Wagner-Wilson or admire her determination. Living through what she did I am not surprised her life took the course it did. I just wish she had had a bit more insight into that -- been able to get professional help, gain some perspective before she wrote the story. Left out a few of those moves that were hard to follow as a reader.
It's a shame our government didn't respond with more compassion and assist the survivors to reclaim their lives and equilibrium.
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July 11, 2020This is an extremely difficult book to rate, so I didn't. But, if I had to, let's say 3.5 for content overall, 2 for the execution/writing, and 4.5 for the portions where Wagner-Wilson was actually living in Jonestown. She did an excellent job at showing what it was like to live in the commune, and how the conditions deteriorated as more people arrived and Jones grew ever more paranoid and insane.
As for the 2 rating, I feel really badly for this author. She went with a vanity press who probably charged her a lot of money and then didn't even bother to edit the book. There were many obvious typos, missing words, etc. I wonder if she did some kind of pitch session, and when iUniverse offered her a contract, she didn't realize it was a scam. A Jonestown survivor certainly could have gotten a traditional publishing deal, so this is a real shame.
An editor or ghost writer could have helped a lot with the organization of this book. There was a lot included that we didn't need to know, and missing information that would have been nice to know. For instance, while it was interesting (at times) to read about a Jonestown survivor's life up to 30 years after the fact, we didn't need to know every time she moved (she moved a lot), every time she changed men (did that a lot too), or every time she went dancing. But how she felt when she found out that everyone in Jonestown was dead--including her husband, mother, brother, sister, nieces and nephews--is glossed over. She mentions survivor's guilt and being afraid, but never really goes into how one survives that magnitude of loss.
As for the 2 rating, I feel really badly for this author. She went with a vanity press who probably charged her a lot of money and then didn't even bother to edit the book. There were many obvious typos, missing words, etc. I wonder if she did some kind of pitch session, and when iUniverse offered her a contract, she didn't realize it was a scam. A Jonestown survivor certainly could have gotten a traditional publishing deal, so this is a real shame.
An editor or ghost writer could have helped a lot with the organization of this book. There was a lot included that we didn't need to know, and missing information that would have been nice to know. For instance, while it was interesting (at times) to read about a Jonestown survivor's life up to 30 years after the fact, we didn't need to know every time she moved (she moved a lot), every time she changed men (did that a lot too), or every time she went dancing. But how she felt when she found out that everyone in Jonestown was dead--including her husband, mother, brother, sister, nieces and nephews--is glossed over. She mentions survivor's guilt and being afraid, but never really goes into how one survives that magnitude of loss.
January 9, 2016
I have watched numerous documentaries about Jonestown. Leslie was often on them telling her perspective. I kept seeing her book and wanted to read it but my library didn't have it. I finally broke down and bought it.
I love biographies and learning about life from others' perspectives. Leslie has definitely lived and gone through a lot of tough situations and proved herself a survivor. I learned a lot from reading her story about Jonestown and about life after surviving a traumatic situation. She gives others hope that no matter what you face in life, you can not only survive but find a life of purpose.
I love biographies and learning about life from others' perspectives. Leslie has definitely lived and gone through a lot of tough situations and proved herself a survivor. I learned a lot from reading her story about Jonestown and about life after surviving a traumatic situation. She gives others hope that no matter what you face in life, you can not only survive but find a life of purpose.
December 4, 2025
This book isn’t about Jonestown. It’s about Leslie. And Leslie is a beacon of hope to the survivors of the world. If you’re looking for a deep exploration of The People’s Temple and Jonestown, move on. Save this story for those of us who can appreciate a lifetime of trauma and the aftermath of it. This book gives me hope. She achieved her mission.
January 29, 2018
good book she really does tell a good reflection of what happened to her throughout her peoples temple experience.
March 15, 2019
Great book well written but extremely sad
Want to read
November 24, 2021Thank you for sharing your story of what happened taking us to that journey you experienced on that day.
May 26, 2024
A book filled with hope despite despair and tragedy.
November 6, 2025
Leslie Wagner Wilson is a talented writer, but she needed an editor and numerous revisions for not just the usual spelling and grammar, but also structure. Because this is a memoir there has to be some type of structure. There also was not enough of understanding how she finally did assess what she experienced. Because one gets the impression she went through this cataclysmic event, came to some resolution, but we’re never told how she came back post cataclysmic event. I hope that she revises this book, updates it and re-releases it. It has the potential to be one of the best Jonestown survivor autobiography/memoirs.
Deborah Layton’s memoir had much better editing, but it’s just nowhere nearly as interesting and as entertaining as Leslie’s life. We’re seeing a lot of of instability as a parent, where stability and resources were available, and because we’re not shown with a full impact was of Jonestown, it’s not as easy to empathize with her get at the same time, she’s very honest about her mistakes.
I’ve seen her numerous interviews and completely understand why she made the bad life decisions she made and I’m glad that her life has come to a resolution that seems calm. But one doesn’t get the path of these resolutions in this book. I’m giving it four stars for bravery. She mentions being gang raped by two paramedics after being roofed with PCP on a joint. We are not told though, did she go after these rapists? It’s a very serious and horrendous experience to go through, and I wanted these assailant to face some kind of justice. She mentions that she will eventually be getting Jonestown blood money, but then we don’t hear about it.
We don’t hear about her relationship with any of their survivors. She could’ve used pseudonyms . There also was no existential connection between her grandfather ‘s tragic suicide and the mass murder suicides in Jonestown. I would’ve thought there would’ve been some hard reflection that the man had gone through so much and lost so many family members and had seen his beloved granddaughter and great grandson, the soul survivors of the family that went down there, was still struggling to see her gain stability and some semblance of normalcy. Stability and reason that was literally laid out before her. This is not being judgmental because I think the majority of the people reading this, myself included, have made really bad mistakes, but we want to see this author explain why and understand why and not just keep making the same mistakes over and over again. As I said before, I really hope she gets a complete revision on the book and gets it published.
More photos. And more information about her remarkable childhood before the temple! I lived in Santa Rosa and I would love to know more about Santa Rosa in the 1960s.
Deborah Layton’s memoir had much better editing, but it’s just nowhere nearly as interesting and as entertaining as Leslie’s life. We’re seeing a lot of of instability as a parent, where stability and resources were available, and because we’re not shown with a full impact was of Jonestown, it’s not as easy to empathize with her get at the same time, she’s very honest about her mistakes.
I’ve seen her numerous interviews and completely understand why she made the bad life decisions she made and I’m glad that her life has come to a resolution that seems calm. But one doesn’t get the path of these resolutions in this book. I’m giving it four stars for bravery. She mentions being gang raped by two paramedics after being roofed with PCP on a joint. We are not told though, did she go after these rapists? It’s a very serious and horrendous experience to go through, and I wanted these assailant to face some kind of justice. She mentions that she will eventually be getting Jonestown blood money, but then we don’t hear about it.
We don’t hear about her relationship with any of their survivors. She could’ve used pseudonyms . There also was no existential connection between her grandfather ‘s tragic suicide and the mass murder suicides in Jonestown. I would’ve thought there would’ve been some hard reflection that the man had gone through so much and lost so many family members and had seen his beloved granddaughter and great grandson, the soul survivors of the family that went down there, was still struggling to see her gain stability and some semblance of normalcy. Stability and reason that was literally laid out before her. This is not being judgmental because I think the majority of the people reading this, myself included, have made really bad mistakes, but we want to see this author explain why and understand why and not just keep making the same mistakes over and over again. As I said before, I really hope she gets a complete revision on the book and gets it published.
More photos. And more information about her remarkable childhood before the temple! I lived in Santa Rosa and I would love to know more about Santa Rosa in the 1960s.
January 13, 2014
An amazing story.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews