Victoria Woodhull - Sex~Kitten.net

Sadly, most Americans don't know who Victoria Woodhull is, though she was one of the most important women in American history. I myself hadn't even heard of her until I took an American history class about a year and a half ago and my history teacher mentioned her. I almost couldn't believe I hadn't heard her name before, what with all my women's studies and feminist history classes from the past, this woman who ran for President way back in 1872 and was the first female stockbroker on Wall Street was never mentioned. Once labeled "Wicked Woodhull" and one of the "Queens of Finance", Victoria Woodhull was a true revolutionary.

Born in 1838 in Homer, Licking County, Ohio, Victoria Claflin was the fifth of seven children born to Reuben and Roxanna Claflin. Of all her siblings, Victoria was closest to her younger sister Tennessee (Tennie), whom she would work closely with later on in her life. Victoria was mostly self-taught and her family spent a lot of time on the road selling patent medicines, telling fortunes, and claiming to be psychic healers. Victoria and her Tennessee even claimed to be clairvoyants, and made money as magnetic healers.

At the age of 15, Victoria met and married a 28-year-old doctor from Ohio named Canning Woodhull. They had two children, Byron and Zula, but it wasn't long after that Victoria realized her husband was an alcoholic and womanizer and that she would need to work in order to support the family. It was also around this time that Victoria got involved with the "free love" (yes, this was way before the 1960's) and spiritualist movements.

America's Victoria, Remembering Victoria Woodhull (Director's Cut~ Two Disc - Collector's Edition) (2007) Starring: Kate Capshaw, Gloria Steinem Director: Victoria Weston

The free love movement was based on the theory that marriage was designed to trap people into unhappy lives and should be viewed as more of a social partnership. They felt people should openly discuss sexuality and be free to choose more than one partner, rather than deny their sexual desires. They also felt that women should be able to divorce their spouses without being ostracized, which was often the case at the time. Sure enough, Victoria did just that, leaving Canning Woodhull after 11 years of marriage.

Two years later, she would marry again, this time to Colonel James Harvey Blood, also a follower of the free love movement and a respectful, well-educated man. In 1866, they moved to New York where Victoria opened a salon that was frequented by some of the city's most famous radicals. There Victoria led discussions on politics, as well as the societal and legal rights of women. It was at the salon that Victoria and Tennesee met millionaire railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt. After taking a liking to Tennie, Vanderbilt agreed to loan the sisters the money to open their own banking and brokerage firm.

In 1870, Woodhull, Claflin & Company opened on Wall Street, causing newspapers to label the sisters at "The Queens of Finance" and "The Bewitching Broker". Susan B. Anthony applauded them and labeled it as "a new phase of the women's rights question." Victoria noted that "women's ability to earn money is better protection against the tyranny and brutality of men than her ability to vote." The sisters were a success and with the money they earned, they started publishing their own newspaper, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, which examined the controversial topics of the day including women's suffrage, labor relations, and exposes on stock swindles, insurance frauds, and corrupt Congressional land deals. The 16-page weekly paper had over 20,000 subscribers and lasted for six years.

Also based on the success of the brokerage firm, Victoria announced in 1870 that she planned to run for President, becoming the first woman ever to do so. Though women still didn't have the right to vote at this time, there were no laws to prevent them from running for President. She was a dedicated campaigner for women's right to vote and in 1971, she appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to deliver a speech on women's suffrage. Victoria argued that the 14th and 15 amendments of the Constitution already gave women the right to vote, yet all they needed to do was exercise that right. Despite how impressive her speech was, the majority ruled against her, but it established her as one of the leaders in the women's suffrage movement along with Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott.

By 1872, the National American Women's Suffrage Association has formed the Equal Rights Party and nominated Victoria to run as their candidate for President, making her the first woman ever to do so. Frederick Douglass was chosen as the Vice Presidential candidate, but he later declined the party's offer. Her platform supported, among other things, women's right to vote, work and love freely, free speech and free press, nationalization of land, and fair division of earnings between labor and capital. The party did gain a bit of support and stands as the largest third part gathering of the 1872 election.

However, Victoria did have many detractors, considering her controversial views and was constantly having to defend her character against accusations about her and her sister. The most prominent accuser was Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, an evangelical minister and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who often denounced sexual activity outside of marriage but was rumored to have had affairs with women in his parish. When Harriet got news that Beecher had an affair with his best friend Theodore Tilton's wife Elizabeth, she broke the story in her newspaper, along with an expose on Luther Challis, a fellow stockbroker who bragged about his conquests with "young girls." Complaints about these two articles brought a criminal libel suit against Victoria and Tennie, who spent weeks in jail and were forced to pay over $60,000 in fines. Because of this, Victoria spent Election Day of 1872 in jail, as Ulysses Grant won the Presidency. Eventually, the women were found innocent of the obscenity and libel charges, but not before enduring hours of testimony on their private lives and having their printing press, personal papers, and brokerage accounts confiscated by the government.

By 1876, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly had ceased publication and Victoria divorced Colonel Blood. The brokerage firm had run out of money and Cornelius Vanderbilt died, leaving his estate to his eldest son. Victoria, her mother, and Tennie moved to England, but by now she had embraced the Bible and Catholicism. She began to lecture on humanitarian causes and on a trip back to America, she joined the Humanitarian Party, who nominated her as their Presidential Candidate in 1892. Grover Cleveland would eventually win that election.

In 1882, she married again, this time to retired banker and millionaire John Biddulph Martin. On their new estate in Worcestershire, England, she became interested in new methods of agriculture and established a school that experimented with the latest educational methods. After her husband died, she rented small shares of the estate farms to women so they could learn to farm for themselves. She would reside in England until her death in 1927 at the age of 88.

Though she is a largely ignored figure in history books, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation and Federation (WFF) continues on with the work that Victoria did all those years ago. They work to educate the public on the importance of sexual freedom and expression, as well as to seek change on "antiquated, repressive, and discriminatory sex laws and enforcement practices."

Victoria would see her dream of women getting the right to vote come true in 1924, but it's been well over a hundred years since her unprecedented run for the Presidency and we still have not seen a woman go to the White House. Time will tell if 2008 will be the year that this changes, but the legacy of Victoria Woodhull continues on.