Publisher's Synopsis
"The Narrative of the Persecution of Agnes Beaumont", now remembered mainly for its vindication of John Bunyan from scandal and carnal sin, has been described as a narrative of self-justification and self-fashioning. Beaumont's story is a domestic instancing of the principle projected by the prophets of her day, who, like Bunyan, preferred imprisonment and martyrdom to being silenced. Born at that moment of British history when both the working classes and women were writing testimonies of their personal salvation, Beaumont rejects the traditional doctrine of woman's subordination. Following Bunyan's model, Beaumont spoke up in self-defence against her persecutors in a community courtroom rather than lapse into the traditional exemplary silence of woman. her narrative reveals an emerging female consciousness in the late 17th century.
