View source for Victoria Woodhull

{{Short description|American women's suffrage activist (1838–1927)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Victoria Woodhull
| image         = Victoria Claflin Woodhull by Mathew Brady - Oval Portrait.jpg
| caption       = Photograph by [[Mathew Brady]], {{circa|1870}}
| birth_name    = Victoria California Claflin
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1838|09|23}}
| birth_place   = [[Homer, Ohio]], U.S.
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1927|6|9|1838|9|23}}
| death_place   = [[Bredon's Norton]], [[Worcestershire|Worcestershire, England]]
| party         = [[Equal Rights Party (United States)|Equal Rights]]
| known_for     = {{cslist|Politics|[[women's rights]]|[[women's suffrage]]|[[feminism]]|[[civil rights]]|[[Abolitionism in the United States|anti-slavery]]|stockbroker|journalism|[[free love]]}}
| occupation    = {{cslist|Suffragist|politician|feminist|writer}}
| spouse        = {{plainlist|
* {{Marriage|Canning Woodhull|1853|1865|end=div}}
* {{marriage|[[James Blood]]|1865|1876|end=div}}
* {{marriage|[[John Biddulph Martin]]|1883|1897|end=died}}
}}
| children      = 2
| relatives     = {{plainlist|
* [[Tennessee Claflin]] (sister)
* {{crossreference|(see [[Claflin family]])}}
}}
| signature     = Victoria Woodhull signature.svg
}}
'''Victoria Claflin Woodhull''' (born '''Victoria California Claflin'''; September 23, 1838&nbsp;– June 9, 1927), later '''Victoria Woodhull Martin''', was an American leader of the women's [[Suffragette|suffrage]] movement who ran for president of the United States in the [[1872 United States presidential election|1872 election]]. While many historians and authors agree that Woodhull was the first woman to run for the presidency,<ref>{{cite book |last=Finan |first=Christopher |date=2022 |title=How Free Speech Saved Democracy |url= |location=Lebanon, NH |publisher=Truth To Power |pages=38–39 |isbn=9781586422981}}</ref> some disagree with classifying it as a true candidacy because according to the Constitution she would have been too young to be president if elected.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/10/18/victoria-woodhull-hillary-clinton-first-woman/92051476/|title=First woman to run for president — 'Mrs. Satan' — was no Hillary Clinton|first=Rick|last=Hampson|website=USA TODAY}}</ref>

An activist for women's rights and labor reforms, Woodhull was also an advocate of "[[free love]]", by which she meant the freedom to marry, divorce and bear children without social restriction or government interference.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/free-love-advocate-victoria-woodhull-excited-bloomington/article_2c2cb275-b36e-5a6a-bc6a-dd4821121900.html |title='Free love' advocate Victoria Woodhull excited Bloomington |newspaper= [[The Pantagraph]] |date= November 15, 2016 |access-date= April 13, 2016 |last= Kemp |first= Bill}}</ref> "They cannot roll back the rising tide of reform," she often said. "The world moves."<ref name=AtticJul2018>{{cite web|title=The Woman Who Ran for President – in 1872|url=https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/woodhull|website=The Attic|date=May 3, 2018 |access-date=July 9, 2018}}</ref>

Woodhull twice went from [[rags to riches]], her first fortune being made on the road as a [[Magnet therapy|magnetic healer]]{{r|Johnson1956_46}} before she joined the [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualist]] movement in the 1870s.{{sfn|Johnson|1956|pp=46–47}}  Together with her sister, [[Tennessee Claflin]], she was the first woman to operate a [[brokerage firm]] on [[Wall Street]],<ref name="Katz" /> making a second fortune.<ref>[https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20161022/282935269864363 "Before Hillary eyed presidency, there was Ohio's 'Mrs. Satan'.]. ''Toronto Star'', October 22, 2016. p. IN4. by Rick Hampson of USA Today.</ref> They were among the first women to found a newspaper in the United States, ''[[Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly]]'', which began publication in 1870.<ref>''[[The Revolution (newspaper)|The Revolution]]'', a weekly newspaper founded by [[Susan B. Anthony]] and [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], had begun publication two years earlier in 1868.</ref> Authorship of many of her articles is disputed (many of her speeches on these topics were collaborations between Woodhull, her backers, and her second husband, Colonel [[James Blood]]{{sfn|Johnson|1956|pp=86, 87}}).

Woodhull was politically active in the early 1870s when she was nominated as the first woman candidate for the United States presidency.<ref name="Katz" /> Woodhull was the candidate in 1872 from the [[Equal Rights Party (United States)|Equal Rights Party]], supporting women's suffrage and equal rights; her running mate (unbeknownst to him) was abolitionist leader [[Frederick Douglass]].<ref name="FD-VP">{{Cite book |last=Trotman |first=C. James |title=Frederick Douglass: A Biography |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-313-35036-8 |pages=118–119}}</ref> Her campaign inspired at least one other woman – apart from her sister – to run for Congress.<ref name="Katz" /> A check on her activities occurred when she was arrested on [[obscenity]] charges a few days before the election. Her paper had published an account of the alleged adulterous affair between the prominent minister [[Henry Ward Beecher]] and [[Elizabeth Richards Tilton]] that had rather more detail than was considered proper at the time. However, it all added to the sensational coverage of her candidacy.<ref>For an account of the arrest, see "[https://www.nytimes.com/1872/11/03/archives/the-claflin-family-arrest-of-victoria-woodhull-tennie-c-claflin-and.html The Claflin Family: Arrest of Victoria Woodhull, Tennie C. Claflin and Col. Blood – They are Charged with Publishing an Obscene Newspaper]," ''The New York Times''. November 3, 1872, page 1.</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Victoria California Claflin was born the seventh of ten children (six of whom survived to maturity),<ref name=Johnson1956_45>{{harvnb|Johnson|1956|p=45}}</ref> in the rural frontier town of [[Homer, Ohio|Homer]], [[Licking County, Ohio]].  Her mother, Mrs Roxanna "Roxy"{{r|Johnson1956_45}} Hummel Claflin, was born to unmarried parents and was illiterate.{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|loc=[https://archive.org/details/otherpowersageof00gold/page/20 p. 20] (Alfred A. Knopf edition - ISBN 0-394-55536-8)}} She had become a follower of the Austrian mystic [[Franz Mesmer]] and the new [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualist]] movement.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vogue.com/article/victoria-woodhull-first-woman-to-run-for-president|title=Move Over, Hillary! Victoria Woodhull Was the First Woman to Run for U.S. President|website=Vogue|date=April 13, 2015|language=en|access-date=September 12, 2019}}</ref>  Her father, Reuben Buckman "Buck" Claflin, Esq.,{{r|Johnson1956_45}}<ref>1850 federal census, Licking, Ohio; Series M432, Roll 703, p. 437; father listed as Buckman, brothers incorrectly transcribed as Hubern (Hubert) and Malven (Melvin).</ref><ref name="Wight">Wight, Charles Henry, ''Genealogy of the Claflin Family, 1661–1898''. New York: Press of William Green. 1903. ''passim'' (use index)</ref> was a con man, lawyer and [[snake oil salesman]].{{r|Johnson1956_45}}  He came from an impoverished branch of the [[Massachusetts]]-based Scots-American [[Claflin family]], semi-distant cousins to Massachusetts Governor [[William Claflin]].<ref name="Wight" />

Woodhull was whipped by her father, according to biographer Theodore Tilton.{{sfn|Tilton|1871|p=4}}  Biographer Barbara Goldsmith claimed she was also starved and sexually abused by her father when still very young.{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|pp=51–52}} Goldsmith based her incest claim on a statement in Theodore Tilton's biography: "But the parents, as if not unwilling to be rid of a daughter whose sorrow was ripening her into a woman before her time, were delighted at the unexpected offer."{{sfn|Tilton|1871|p=14}}{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|p=457}} Biographer Myra MacPherson disputes Goldsmith's claim that "Vickie often intimated that he sexually abused her" as well as the accuracy of Goldsmith's saying that "Years later, Vickie would say that Buck made her 'a woman before my time.{{'"}}{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|pp=51–52}} Macpherson wrote, "Not only did Victoria not say this, there was no 'often' involved, nor was it about incest."{{sfn|MacPherson|2014|p=346}}

Woodhull believed in [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]] – she referred to "Banquo's Ghost" from [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Macbeth]]'' – because it gave her belief in a better life. She said that she was guided in 1868 by [[Demosthenes]] to what symbolism to use supporting her theories of Free Love.{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|}}{{Page needed|date=February 2021}}

As they grew older, Victoria became close to her sister [[Tennessee Celeste Claflin]] (called Tennie), seven years her junior and the last child born to the family. As adults, they collaborated in founding a stock brokerage and newspaper in New York City.{{r|Johnson1956_45}}

By age 11, Woodhull had only three years of formal education, but her teachers found her to be extremely intelligent. She was forced to leave school and home with her family when her father, after having "insured it heavily,"{{r|Johnson1956_46}} burned the family's rotting [[gristmill]]. When he tried to get compensated by insurance, his arson and fraud were discovered; he was run off by a group of town [[vigilante]]s.{{r|Johnson1956_46}} The town held a "benefit" to raise funds to pay for the rest of the family's departure from Ohio.{{r|Johnson1956_46}}

== Marriages ==

=== First marriage and family ===
[[File:Victoria-Woodhull-by-Bradley-&-Rulofson.png|thumb|right|Victoria Woodhull, c. 1860s]]
When she was 14, Victoria met 28-year-old Canning Woodhull (listed as "Channing" in some records), a doctor from a town outside [[Rochester, New York]]. Her family had consulted him to treat the girl for a chronic illness.  Woodhull practiced medicine in Ohio at a time when the state did not require formal medical education and licensing. By some accounts, Woodhull abducted Victoria to marry her.<ref>Prioleau, Elizabeth. ''Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love''. Penguin, 2004, p. 222</ref> Woodhull claimed to be the nephew of [[Caleb Smith Woodhull]], [[List of mayors of New York City|mayor of New York City]] from 1849 to 1851; he was in fact a distant cousin.<ref>Coates, H.T. Woodhull Genealogy: The Woodhull Family in England and America, 1904 pp. 159, 211.</ref>

They were married on November 20, 1853.{{sfn|Gabriel|1998|loc=[https://archive.org/details/notoriousvictori00gabr/page/12 p. 12]}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-17962-14094-44?cc=1614804|title="Ohio, County Marriages, 1789–2013, index and images, FamilySearch "Marriage records 1849–1854 vol 5 > image 273 of 334; county courthouses, Ohio|publisher=familysearch.org |access-date=June 9, 2015}}</ref> Their marriage certificate was recorded in [[Cleveland]] on November 23, 1853, when Victoria was two months past her 15th birthday.<ref name=Johnson1956_46>{{harvnb|Johnson|1956|p=46}}.</ref>{{sfn|Underhill|1996|p=24}}

Victoria soon learned that her new husband was an [[alcoholic]] and a womanizer.  She often had to work outside the home to support the family. She and Canning had two children, Byron and Zulu (later called Zula) Maude Woodhull.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Woodhull, Zula Maude |journal=Who's Who |year=1907 |volume=59 |page=1930 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1930}}</ref>  Byron was born with an [[intellectual disability]] in 1854, a condition Victoria believed was caused by her husband's alcoholism.<ref>Noll, Steven and Trent, James. ''Mental Retardation in America: A Historical Reader''. NYU, 2004, pp. 73–75</ref> Another version recounted that her son's disability was caused by a fall from a window.  After their children were born, Victoria divorced her husband and kept his surname.{{sfn|Johnson|1956|pp=46–47}}<!-- Presumably the reference is the different version; hence arguing the case. -->

=== Second marriage ===
About 1866,<ref name=Johnson1956_47>{{harvnb|Johnson|1956|p=47}}.</ref> Woodhull married [[Colonel James Blood|Colonel James Harvey Blood]], who also was marrying for a second time. He had served in the [[Union Army]] in [[Missouri]] during the [[American Civil War]], and had been elected as city auditor of [[St. Louis|St. Louis, Missouri]].

=== Free love ===
Woodhull's support of [[free love]] may have started after she discovered the [[infidelity]] of her first husband, Canning.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Women who married in the [[United States]] during the 19th century were bound into the unions, even if loveless, with few options to escape. [[Divorce in the United States|Divorce]] was limited by law and considered socially scandalous. Women who divorced were stigmatized and often ostracized by society. Victoria Woodhull concluded that women should have the choice to leave unbearable marriages.{{sfn|Dubois|Dumenil|2012|}}{{Page needed|date=February 2021}}

Woodhull believed in monogamous relationships, although she also said she had the right to change her mind. The choice to have sex or not was, in every case, the woman's choice, since this would place her in an equal status to the man, who had the capability to physically overcome and rape a woman, whereas a woman did not have that capability with respect to a man.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dworkin |first=Andrea |date=1987 |title=Intercourse |at=Chapter 7: "Occupation/Collaboration |url=http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/IntercourseII.html }}</ref>
Woodhull said:

{{blockquote|To woman, by nature, belongs the right of sexual determination. When the instinct is aroused in her, then and then only should commerce follow. When woman rises from sexual slavery to sexual freedom, into the [[self-ownership|ownership and control of her sexual organs]], and man is obliged to respect this freedom, then will this instinct become pure and holy; then will woman be raised from the iniquity and morbidness in which she now wallows for existence, and the intensity and glory of her creative functions be increased a hundred-fold … .<ref>"And the truth shall make you free". [http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20160709212238/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbnawsa&fileName=n8216//rbnawsan8216.db&recNum=0&itemLink=r?ammem/nawbib:@field(NUMBER+@od1(rbnawsa+n8216))&linkText=0&presId=nawbib A speech on the principles of social freedom], delivered in Steinway hall, Nov. 20, 1871, by Victoria C. Woodhull, pub. Woodhull & Claflin, New York, 1871.</ref>}}

In this same speech, which became known as the "Steinway speech," delivered on Monday, November 20, 1871, in [[Steinway Hall]], New York City, Woodhull said of free love:

<blockquote>Yes, I am a Free Lover. I have an inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or as short a period as I can; to change that love every day if I please, and with that right neither you nor any law you can frame have any right to interfere.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/prostitute.htm|title=Victoria Woodhull, Abandoned Woman?|website=www.victoria-woodhull.com|access-date=2019-11-06}}</ref></blockquote>

Woodhull railed against the hypocrisy of society's tolerating married men who had [[mistress (lover)|mistresses]] and engaged in other sexual dalliances. In 1872, Woodhull publicly criticized well-known clergyman [[Henry Ward Beecher]] for adultery. Beecher was known to have had an affair with his parishioner Elizabeth Tilton, who had confessed to it, and the scandal was covered nationally. Woodhull was prosecuted on obscenity charges for sending accounts of the affair through the federal mails, and she was briefly jailed. This added to sensational coverage during her campaign that autumn for the United States presidency.{{sfn|Dubois|Dumenil|2012|}}{{Page needed|date=February 2021}}

=== Prostitution rumors and stance ===
Woodhull spoke out in person against prostitution and considered [[Marriage of convenience|marriage for material gain]] a form of it but in her journal, ''Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly,'' Woodhull expressed support for the [[legalization of prostitution]].<ref name="Shearer">{{Cite web|url=http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/faq.htm#who|title=Victoria Woodhull, the Spirit to Run the White House|website=www.victoria-woodhull.com|access-date=November 6, 2019}}</ref>  A personal account from one of Colonel Blood's friends suggests that Tennessee was held against her will in a brothel until Woodhull rescued her, but this story remains unconfirmed.<ref name="Shearer" />

=== Religious shift and repudiation of free love ===
While Woodhull's earlier radicalism had stemmed from the [[Christian socialism]] of the 1850s, for most of her life, she was involved in [[Spiritualism (movement)|Spiritualism]] and she did not use religious language in her public speeches. However, in 1875, Woodhull began to publicly  espouse [[Christianity]] and she changed her political stances.{{sfn|Gabriel|1998|p=240}} She exposed Spiritualist frauds in her periodical, alienating her Spiritualist followers.{{sfn|Gabriel|1998|p=240f}} She wrote articles against promiscuity, calling it a "curse of society".<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Mrs. Victoria Woodhull's work |magazine=Humanitarian | volume=1 |number=6 | date=December 1892 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9lAuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT1 | access-date=May 17, 2018 | page=100}}</ref> Woodhull repudiated her earlier views on free love, and began idealizing purity, motherhood, marriage, and the Bible in her writings.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rugoff |first=Milton |title=The Gilded Age |publisher=New Word City, Inc |location=Newbury |date=2018 |isbn=978-1-64019-134-1 |oclc=1029760382 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fxxHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT221 |access-date=May 17, 2018 |page=221}}</ref>{{sfn|Hayden|2013|p=30}}{{sfn|Gabriel|1998|loc=[https://archive.org/details/notoriousvictori00gabr/page/247 p. 247]}} She further claimed that some works had been written in her name without her consent,{{sfn|Frisken|2012|p=10}} an assertion which many historians have found dubious.{{sfn|Hayden|2013|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gsddNlV-rGwC&pg=PA222 p. 222]}}

== Careers ==

=== Stockbroker ===
[[File:Victoria-Woodhull-by-Mathew-Brady-c1870.png|thumb|right|[[Cabinet card]] of Woodhull by [[Mathew Brady]], 1866–73]]

Woodhull, with sister Tennessee (Tennie) Claflin, became the first female [[stockbroker]]s and in 1870 they opened a [[brokerage firm]] on [[Wall Street]]. Wall Street brokers were shocked. "Petticoats Among the Bovine and Ursine Animals", the ''New York Sun'' headlined.{{r|AtticJul2018}} Woodhull, Claflin & Company opened in 1870, with the assistance of the wealthy [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]], an admirer of Woodhull's skills as a medium; he is rumored to have been Tennie's lover, and to have seriously considered marrying her.{{sfn|Johnson|1956|p=86}}  Woodhull made a fortune on the [[New York Stock Exchange]] by advising clients like Vanderbilt.  On one occasion she told him to sell his shares short for 150 cents per stock, which he duly followed, and earned millions on the deal. The ''[[New York Herald]]'' hailed Woodhull and Claflin as "the Queens of Finance" and "the Bewitching Brokers."{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}} Many contemporary men's journals (e.g., ''The Days' Doings'') published sexualized images of the pair running their firm (although they did not participate in the day-to-day business of the firm), linking the concept of publicly minded, un-chaperoned women with ideas of "[[Religion and sexuality|sexual immorality]]" and [[prostitution]].{{sfn|Johnson|1956|p=87}}

=== Newspaper editor ===
On the date of May 14, 1870, Woodhull and Claflin used the money they had made from their brokerage to found a newspaper, the ''Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly'', which at its height had a national circulation of 20,000. Its primary purpose was to support Victoria Claflin Woodhull for President of the United States. Published for the next six years, feminism was the ''Weekly'''s primary interest, but it became notorious for publishing controversial opinions on taboo topics, advocating among other things [[sex education]], [[free love]], women's suffrage, [[rational dress|short skirts]], [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]], [[vegetarianism]], and licensed prostitution. History often states the paper advocated [[birth control]], but some historians disagree. The paper is now known for printing the first English version of [[Karl Marx]]'s ''[[Communist Manifesto]]'' in its edition of December 30, 1871.  James Blood and [[Stephen Pearl Andrews]] wrote the majority of the articles, as well as other able contributors.{{sfn|Johnson|1956|p=87}}<ref>{{Cite news |title=A Woman for President?; Perhaps you didn't know the fair sex had ever tried for the office, but one lady polled 4,159 votes in 1884 |magazine=The New York Times |url-access=registration  |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/05/27/90506685.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=221 }}</ref>

In 1872, the ''Weekly'' published a story that set off a national scandal and preoccupied the public for months. [[Henry Ward Beecher]], a renowned preacher of Brooklyn's Plymouth Church, had condemned Woodhull's free love philosophy in his sermons but a member of his church, [[Theodore Tilton]], disclosed to [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], a colleague of Woodhull, that his wife had confessed Beecher was committing [[adultery]] with her. Provoked by such hypocrisy, Woodhull decided to expose Beecher. He ended up standing trial in 1875, for adultery in a proceeding that proved to be one of the most sensational legal episodes of the era, gripping the attention of hundreds of thousands of Americans: the trial ended with a [[hung jury]], but the church won the case hands down.{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|}}{{Page needed|date=February 2021}} On November 2, 1872, Woodhull, Claflin and Col. Blood were arrested and charged with publishing an obscene newspaper and circulating it through the United States Postal Service. In the raid, 3,000 copies of the newspaper were found. It was this arrest and Woodhull's acquittal that propelled Congress to pass the 1873 [[Comstock laws|Comstock Laws]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The Clafin Family; Arrest of Victoria Woodhull, Tennie C. Claflin and Col. Blood – They are Charged with Publishing an Obscene Newspaper|magazine=The New York Times |url-access=registration |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1872/11/03/79024263.html?}}</ref><ref>Lefkowitz Horowitz, Helen. ''Rereading Sex''. New York: Random House, 2002.{{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=February 2022}}</ref>

[[George Francis Train]] once defended her. Other feminists of her time, including [[Susan B. Anthony]], disagreed with her tactics in pushing for women's equality. Some characterized her as opportunistic and unpredictable; in one notable incident, she had a run-in with Anthony during a meeting of the National Women's Suffrage Association (NWSA). (The radical NWSA later merged with the conservative American Women's Suffrage Association [AWSA] to form the [[National American Woman Suffrage Association]].)

=== Women's rights advocate ===
Woodhull learned how to infiltrate the all-male domain of national politics and arranged to testify on women's suffrage before the [[House Judiciary Committee]].{{r|Johnson1956_47}} In December 1870, she submitted a memorial in support of the [[New Departure (United States)|New Departure]] to the House Committee.<ref name="Katz" /><ref>[[Benjamin Butler]], while a member of Congress, wrote the memorial for her. Shaplen, Robert, ''Free Love: The Story of a Great American Scandal'', New York: McNally Editions, 2024, p. 144; originally published in 1954 by [[Alfred A. Knopf]] as ''Free Love and Heavenly Sinners''.</ref> She read the memorial aloud to the committee, arguing that women already had the right to vote&nbsp;– all they had to do was use it&nbsp;– since the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th]] and [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|15th Amendments]] guaranteed the protection of that right for all citizens.<ref name="Woodhull">[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?rbpebib:1:./temp/~ammem_enxC:: Constitutional equality. To the Hon. the Judiciary committee of the Senate and the House of representatives of the Congress of the United States ... Most respectfully submitted. Victoria C. Woodhull. Dated New York, January 2, 1871]</ref> The simple but powerful logic of her argument impressed some committee members.  Learning of Woodhull's planned address, suffrage leaders postponed the opening of the 1871 [[National Woman Suffrage Association]]'s third annual convention in Washington in order to attend the committee hearing. [[Susan B. Anthony]], [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], and [[Isabella Beecher Hooker]], saw Woodhull as the newest champion of their cause. They applauded her statement: "[W]omen are the equals of men before the law, and are equal in all their rights."<ref name="Woodhull" />

With the power of her first public appearance as a woman's rights advocate, Woodhull moved to the leadership circle of the suffrage movement. Although her constitutional argument was not original, she focused unprecedented public attention on suffrage. Woodhull was the second woman to petition Congress in person (the first was [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]]). Numerous newspapers reported her appearance before Congress. ''[[Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper]]'' printed a full-page engraving of Woodhull, surrounded by prominent suffragists, delivering her argument.{{r|Johnson1956_47}}<ref>Susan Kullmann, [https://feministgeek.com/teaching-learning/woodhull/ "Legal Contender... Victoria C. Woodhull, First Woman to Run for President"]. Accessed 2009.05.29.</ref>

=== First International ===
Woodhull joined the International Workingmen's Association, also known as the [[First International]]. She supported its goals by articles in her newspaper. In the United States, many Yankee radicals, former [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]] and other progressive activists, became involved in the organization, which had been founded in England. German-American and ethnic Irish nearly lost control of the organization, and feared its goals were going to be lost in the broad-based, democratic egalitarianism promoted by the Americans. In 1871, the Germans expelled most of the English-speaking members of the First International's U.S. sections, leading to the quick decline of the organization, as it failed to attract the ethnic working class in America.<ref name="Messer-Kruse p470">{{cite book|title=The Yankee International: Marxism and the American Reform Tradition, 1848–1876 |first=Timothy |last=Messer-Kruse |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KL3eYgNEchoC |pages=2–4|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-4705-3 }}</ref> Karl Marx commented disparagingly on Woodhull in 1872, and expressed approval of the expulsions.<ref>{{cite web |last=Marx |first=Carl |date= May 28, 1872 |title=Notes on the "American split" |website=Marx-Engels Archive |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/09/splits.htm |access-date=August 5, 2010 }}</ref>

Recent scholarship has shown Woodhull to have been a far more significant presence in the socialist movement than previous historians had allowed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hamilton |first1=Neil A. |title=Rebels and Renegades: A Chronology of Social and Political Dissent in the United States |date=2002 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=128}}</ref>{{sfn|Frisken|2012|p=13}} Woodhull thought of herself as a revolutionary and her conception of social and political reorganization was, like Marx, based upon economics. In an article titled "Woman Suffrage in the United States" in 1896, she concluded that "suffrage is only one phase of the larger question of women's emancipation. More important is the question of her social and economic position. Her financial independence underlies all the rest."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stokes |first1=John |title=Eleanor Marx (1855–1898): Life, Work, Contacts |date=2000 |publisher=Ashgate |pages=158–170}}</ref> Ellen Carol DuBois refers to her as a "socialist feminist."<ref>{{cite book |last1=DuBois |first1=Ellen Carol |title=Woman Suffrage and Women's Rights |date=1998 |publisher=NYU Press |page=256}}</ref>

=== Presidential candidate ===
{{Main|United States presidential election, 1872}}
[[File:Victoria Woodhull caricature by Thomas Nast 1872.jpg|thumb|right|"Get thee behind me, (Mrs.) Satan!" 1872 caricature by [[Thomas Nast]]: Wife, carrying a heavy burden of children and drunk husband, admonishing (Mrs.) Satan (Victoria Woodhull), "I'd rather travel the hardest path of matrimony than follow your footsteps." Mrs. Satan's sign reads, "Be saved by free love."]]

On April 2, 1870, Woodhull's letter to the editor of the ''[[New York Herald]]'' was published, announcing her candidacy.<ref>{{Cite news|date=April 2, 1870|title=Victoria Woodhull announces her candidacy on Apr. 2, 1870 in the New York Herald|pages=5|work=The New York Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6836678/victoria-woodhull-announces-her/|access-date=July 18, 2021}}</ref> She was influenced by retired Civil War general and congressman Benjamin Butler by basing her candidacy on the idea that there was no need for women to have special legislation to win suffrage as they already had attained it through the 14th and 15th Amendments of the Constitution.<ref>Richardson, Betty. “Victoria Woodhull.” Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, Apr. 2023. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=82d77a98-8a1a-3f92-98e1-7456142323f0.</ref>

Woodhull was nominated for [[president of the United States]] by the newly formed [[Equal Rights Party (United States)|Equal Rights Party]] on May 10, 1872, at Apollo Hall, New York City. A year earlier, she had announced her intention to run. Also in 1871, she publicly spoke out against the government only being composed of men; she proposed the development of a new constitution and the creation of a new government a year thence.<ref>''A Lecture on Constitutional Equality'', also known as ''The Great Secession Speech'', speech to Woman's Suffrage Convention, New York, May 11, 1871, excerpt quoted in {{harvnb|Gabriel|1998|loc=pp. 86–87, n. 13}} (author Mary Gabriel journalist, Reuters News Service). Also excerpted, differently, in {{harvnb|Underhill|1996 |pp= 125–126}}.</ref> Her nomination was ratified at the convention on June 6, 1872, making her the first woman candidate.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The First Woman To Run For President: Victoria Woodhull (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-first-woman-to-run-for-president-victoria-woodhull.htm|access-date=July 18, 2021|website=www.nps.gov|language=en}}</ref>

Woodhull's campaign was also notable because [[Frederick Douglass]] was nominated as its vice-presidential candidate, even though he did not take part in the convention. He did not acknowledge his nomination and did not play any active role in the campaign.<ref name="FD-VP" /> His nomination stirred up controversy about the mixing of [[White people|white]] and [[Black people|black]] people in public life, and fears of [[miscegenation]]. The Equal Rights Party hoped to use the nominations to reunite suffragists with African-American [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] activists, because the exclusion of female suffrage from the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth Amendment]] two years earlier had caused a substantial rift between the groups.{{citation needed|date = September 2023}}

Having been vilified in the media for her support of [[free love]], Woodhull devoted an issue of ''Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly'' (November 2, 1872) to an alleged adulterous affair between Elizabeth Tilton and Reverend [[Henry Ward Beecher]], a prominent Protestant minister in Brooklyn. He supported female suffrage but had lectured against free love in his sermons. Woodhull published the article to highlight what she saw as a sexual double standard between men and women.<ref name="Woodhull 2010">{{cite book |last1=Woodhull |first1=Victoria C. |editor-last=Carpenter |editor-first=Cari M |title=Selected Writings of Victoria Woodhull: Suffrage, Free Love, and Eugenics |publication-place=Lincoln |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |chapter=14: The Beecher-Tilton Scandal Case |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/selectedwritings0000wood/page/98/mode/2up |chapter-url-access=registration |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8032-2995-2 |oclc=794700538 |url=https://archive.org/details/selectedwritings0000wood |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

That same day, a few days before the presidential election, [[United States Marshals Service|U.S. Federal Marshals]] arrested Woodhull, her second husband, [[Colonel James Blood]], and her sister Tennie on charges of "publishing an obscene newspaper" because of the content of this issue.<ref>{{cite news |title=Arrest of Victoria Woodhull, Tennie C. Claflin and Col. Blood. They are Charged with Publishing an Obscene Newspaper. |url-access=registration |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F03E5DB1439EF34BC4B53DFB7678389669FDE |quote=The agent of the Society for the Suppression of Obscene Literature, yesterday morning, appeared before United States Commissioner Osborn and asked for a warrant for the arrest of Mrs. Victoria C. Woodhull and Miss Tennie ...|newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 3, 1872 |access-date=June 27, 2008 }}</ref> The sisters were held in the [[Ludlow Street Jail]] for the next month, a place normally reserved for civil offenses but that also held more hardened criminals. The arrest was arranged by [[Anthony Comstock]], the self-appointed moral defender of the nation at the time. Opponents raised questions about censorship and government persecution. The three were acquitted on a technicality six months later, but the arrest prevented Woodhull from attempting to vote during the 1872 presidential election. With the publication of the scandal, [[Theodore Tilton]], Elizabeth's husband, sued Beecher for "criminal conversation" (adultery) and [[Alienation of affections|alienation of affection]]. The 1875 trial was sensationalized across the nation and resulted in a hung jury.{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|}}{{Page needed|date=February 2021}}

Woodhull received no electoral votes in the election of 1872, an election in which six different candidates received at least one electoral vote, and a negligible, but unknown, percentage of the popular vote. A man in Texas said that he had voted for her, saying he was casting his vote against Grant.<ref name="Shearer"/>

Woodhull again tried to gain nominations for the presidency in [[1884 United States presidential election|1884]] and [[1892 United States presidential election|1892]]. Newspapers reported that her 1892 attempt culminated in her nomination by the "National Woman Suffragists' Nominating Convention" on September 21. [[Marietta Stow|Marietta L. B. Stow]] of California was nominated as the candidate for vice president. The convention was held at Willard's Hotel in [[Boonville (town), New York|Boonville, New York]], and [[Anna M. Parker]] was its president.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |first= |date= |title=Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, September 23, 1892, Image 3 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069117/1892-09-23/ed-1/seq-3/ |access-date=February 23, 2023 |issn=2157-3484}}</ref> Some women's suffrage organizations repudiated the nominations, claiming that the nominating committee was unauthorized.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |first= |date= |title=Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, September 28, 1892, Image 9 |pages=9 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024546/1892-09-28/ed-1/seq-9/ |access-date=February 23, 2023 |issn=2157-1295}}</ref> Woodhull was quoted as saying that she was "destined" by "prophecy" to be elected president of the United States in the upcoming election.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

== Life in England and third marriage ==

[[File:John Biddulph Martin.png|thumb|John Biddulph Martin]]

In October 1876, Woodhull divorced her second husband, Colonel Blood. After [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]]'s death in 1877, [[William Henry Vanderbilt]] paid Woodhull and her sister Claflin $1,000 ({{Inflation|USD|1000|1877|fmt=eq|r=-3}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}) to leave the country because he was worried they might testify in hearings on the distribution of the elder Vanderbilt's estate. The sisters accepted the offer and moved to Great Britain in August 1877.<ref>{{cite book | last=Havelin | first=K. | title=Victoria Woodhull: Fearless Feminist | publisher=Twenty-First Century Books | series=Trailblazer biography | year=2006 | isbn=978-0-8225-5986-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIiJTpF4cRoC&pg=PA81 | access-date=May 17, 2018 | page=81}}</ref>

She made her first public appearance as a lecturer at [[St. James's Hall]] in London on December 4, 1877. Her lecture was called "The Human Body, the Temple of God," a lecture which she had previously presented in the United States. Present at one of her lectures was the banker [[John Biddulph Martin]]. They began to see each other and married on October 31, 1883. His family disapproved of the union.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/victoria-woodhull-first-woman-presidential-candidate-116828.html|title=The Strange Tale of the First Woman to Run for President|last=Felsenthal|first=Carol|website=Politico Magazine|language=en|access-date=December 28, 2019|archive-date=August 22, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150822055514/http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/victoria-woodhull-first-woman-presidential-candidate-116828.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Norton Park - 2 - geograph.org.uk - 1573515.jpg|thumb|Norton Park, [[Bredon's Norton]]]]
From then on, she was known as Victoria Woodhull Martin. Under that name, she published the magazine ''The Humanitarian'' from 1892 to 1901 with help from her daughter, Zula Woodhull. Her husband John died in 1897.  After 1901, Martin gave up publishing and retired to the country, establishing residence at Norton Park, [[Bredon's Norton]], Worcestershire, where she built a village school with Tennessee and Zula. Through her work at the Bredon's Norton school, she became a champion for education reform in English village schools with the addition of kindergarten curriculum.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Mrs. Martin Starts English School War; Sister of Tennessee Claflin, Once in Public Eye Here, Again a Reformer. Stirs Village Dogberrys Runs Up-to-Date School on Her Own Estate and Draws Pupils from Old-Fashioned "Three Rs" Seats of Learning. |work=The New York Times |url-access=registration |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/01/12/104793008.html?pageNumber=16}}</ref>

She was active in the pioneering days of female motorists, with the [[Ladies' Automobile Club]], and was reputed to have been the first woman to drive a car in [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], London and in the English country roads.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 10, 1904 |title=First Lady Motorist |pages=10 |work=Westminster Gazette |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002947/19040610/064/0010 |access-date=January 6, 2023}}</ref>

== Views on abortion and eugenics ==
Woodhull expressed thoughts on [[abortion]]:

<blockquote>Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth.<ref>Wheeling, West Virginia Evening Standard (1875).</ref></blockquote>

In one of her speeches, she states:
<blockquote>The rights of children, then, as individuals, begin while yet they are in foetal life. Children do not come into existence by any will or consent of their own.<ref>{{cite web|first=Victoria|last=Woodhull|title=Woodhull, Children – Their Rights and Privileges|url=http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/speech.htm|access-date=October 31, 2019}}</ref></blockquote>

At the Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, on an essay called ''When Is It Not Murder to Take a Life?'', she asserts:
<blockquote>Many women who would be shocked at the very thought of killing their children after birth, deliberately destroy them previously. If there is any difference in the actual crime we should be glad to have those who practice the latter, point it out. The truth of the matter is that it is just as much a murder to destroy life in its embryotic condition, as it is to destroy it after the fully developed form is attained, for it is the self-same life that is taken.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|first=Victoria|last=Woodhull|title=When is it not murder to take a life?|url=http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/woodhull_and_claflins_weekly/woodhull_and_claflins_weekly_v1_n21_oct_8_1870.pdf|page=11|access-date=October 31, 2019}}</ref></blockquote>

Later in the same essay she asks:
<blockquote>Can any one suggest a better than to so situate woman, that she may never be obligated to conceive a life she does not desire shall be continuous?<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>{{Eugenics sidebar}}Woodhull also promoted [[eugenics]], which was popular in the early 20th century. Her views on eugenics tied into her views on abortion, because she blamed abortion for assorted problems with pregnancies.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=September 23, 1871|title=My Word on Abortion and Other Things|journal=Woodhull and Claflins Weekly}}</ref>  Her interest in eugenics might have been motivated by the profound intellectual impairment of her son.  She advocated, among other things, sex education, "marrying well," and pre-natal care as a way to bear healthier children and prevent mental and physical disease.  Her writings express views which are closer to the views of anarchist eugenicists, rather than the views of coercive eugenicists like [[Francis Galton|Sir Francis Galton]].  In 2006, publisher Michael W. Perry discovered writings which show that Woodhull supported the forcible sterilization of people who she considered unfit to breed. He published these writings in his book "Lady Eugenist".  He cited a ''New York Times'' article from 1927 in which she concurred with the ruling of the case ''[[Buck v. Bell]]''. This was in stark contrast to her earlier works in which she advocated social freedom and opposed governmental interference in matters of love and marriage.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

Woodhull Martin died on June 9, 1927, at Norton Park in Bredon's Norton.<ref>{{cite news |title=Victoria Martin, Suffragist, Dies. Nominated for President of the United States as Mrs. Woodhull in 1872. Leader of Many Causes. Had Fostered Anglo-American Friendship Since She Became Wife of a Britisher ... |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/06/11/archives/vigtoria-martin-suffragist-dies-nominated-for-president-of-the.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 11, 1927|url-access=registration }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/images/VictoriaWoodhullDeath.jpg |title=Victoria Woodhull Martin certified death certificate |date=June 17, 2015 |website=victoria-woodhull.com|publisher=Obtained from the General Register Office, UK |access-date=November 9, 2016}}</ref>

== Legacy and honors ==
[[File:Victoria-Woodhull-by-CD-Fredericks,-c1870.jpg|thumb|right|Cabinet card portrait photograph, circa 1870]]
Woodhull was photographed several times by [[Mathew Brady]], well known for his photographs of the [[American Civil War]].

There is a wall memorial to Victoria Woodhull Martin  at [[Tewkesbury Abbey]] in England.<ref>[https://www.flickr.com/photos/32157648@N08/5019811422/ Photo taken by RobertFrost1960 on September 21, 2010], accessed June 9, 2011.</ref>

A historical marker outside the Homer Public Library in Licking County, Ohio describes Woodhull as the "First Woman Candidate For President of the United States."<ref>{{cite web |last=Hart |first=Ted |url=http://nbc4i.com/2016/07/29/licking-co-abolitionist-ran-for-president-in-1872-making-her-the-first-woman-ever-to-do-so/ |title=Licking Co. native ran for president in 1872, the first woman ever to do so |publisher=NBC4i.com |date=July 29, 2016 |access-date=August 4, 2016 |archive-date=August 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803205647/http://nbc4i.com/2016/07/29/licking-co-abolitionist-ran-for-president-in-1872-making-her-the-first-woman-ever-to-do-so/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

There is a memorial clock tower in her honor at the Robbins Hunter Museum, Granville, Ohio.  A likeness of Victoria  made of [[Tilia|linden]] wood appears on the hours.<ref name="Robbins Hunter Museum 2017">{{cite web |title=Victoria Claflin Woodhull: Phoenix Rising |website=Robbins Hunter Museum |date=December 19, 2017 |url=http://www.robbinshunter.org/news/2017/12/14/victoria-claflin-woodhull-phoenix-rising |access-date=August 25, 2019}}</ref>

The 1980 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] musical ''[[Onward Victoria]]'' was inspired by Woodhull's life.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBnpnURcDbMC&q=%22onward+victoria%22+musical&pg=PA128|title=The Performing Arts: A Guide to the Reference Literature|publisher=Libraries Unlimited|isbn=978-0-87287-982-9|year=1994}}</ref>

The [[Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership]] was founded by [[Naomi Wolf]] and [[Margot Magowan]] in 1997.<ref>[http://woodhull.tv/about/ Woodhull Institute] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130317012918/http://woodhull.tv/about/ |date=March 17, 2013 }}; Retrieved April 3, 2013</ref>

In 2001, Victoria Woodhull was posthumously inducted into the [[National Women's Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greatwomen.org/women-of-the-hall/view-all-women?resetfilters=0&limitstart4=240 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111021093027/http://www.greatwomen.org/women-of-the-hall/view-all-women?resetfilters=0&limitstart4=240 |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 21, 2011 |title=National Women's Hall of Fame |publisher=Greatwomen.org |access-date=February 17, 2013}}</ref>

The [[Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance]] is an American [[human rights]] and sexual freedom advocacy organization, it was founded in 2003, and it is named in honor of Victoria Woodhull.

She was honored by the Office of the [[Manhattan Borough President]] in March 2008 and she was also included on a map of [[Women's Rights Historic Sites|historical sites which are related or dedicated to important women]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mbpo.org/free_details.asp?ID=234|title=Women's Rights, Historic Sites Location List|publisher=Office of Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718113101/http://www.mbpo.org/free_details.asp?ID=234|archive-date=July 18, 2011}}</ref>

{{External media | width = 210px | float = right | topic= '''Mrs. President''' | audio1 = [https://www.wnyc.org/story/victoria-woodulls-historic-run-presidency Get to Know The First Woman Who Ever Ran for President], 7:57, [[The Takeaway]], [[WNYC]]<ref name="wnyc">{{cite web | title =Get to Know The First Woman Who Ever Ran for President | work = [[The Takeaway]] | publisher =[[WNYC]] | date = October 28, 2016 | url =https://www.wnyc.org/story/victoria-woodulls-historic-run-presidency | access-date =October 31, 2016 }}</ref> }}
On September 26, 2008, she was posthumously awarded the "Ronald H. Brown Trailblazer Award" from the [[St. John's University School of Law]] in Queens, New York. Mary L. Shearer, owner of the registered trademark Victoria Woodhull and a great-granddaughter of Col. James H. Blood's step-son, accepted the award on Victoria Woodhull's behalf. Trailblazer Awards are presented "to individuals whose work and activities in the business and community demonstrate a commitment to uplifting under-represented groups and individuals."<ref>{{cite journal | last= Baynes | first= Leonard M. | url=http://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1645&context=jcred | title=The Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Ronald H. Brown's Graduation from St. John's School of Law | journal=Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development |volume=25 | issue=1 | date=Fall 2010| page=14 }}</ref>

[[Victoria Bond]] composed the opera ''[[Mrs. President (opera)|Mrs. President]]'' about Woodhull.<ref name="adn.com">{{cite news|last=Dunham |first=Mike |url=https://www.adn.com/arts/article/review-opera-about-first-woman-run-president-debuts-anchorage/2012/10/06/|title=Review: Opera about first woman to run for president debuts in Anchorage &#124; Arts and Culture |newspaper=[[Alaska Dispatch News]]|location=Anchorage|access-date=September 18, 2016}}</ref> It premiered in 2012 in [[Anchorage, Alaska]].<ref name="adn.com" />

In March 2017, [[Amazon Studios]] announced production of a movie based on her life, produced by and starring [[Brie Larson]] as Victoria Woodhull.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://variety.com/2017/film/news/brie-larson-victoria-woodhull-first-female-presidential-candidate-movie-amazon-1202014097/|title=Brie Larson to Play First Female U.S. Presidential Candidate Victoria Woodhull in Amazon Film|last=Kroll|first=Justin|date=March 22, 2017|work=Variety|access-date=March 28, 2017|language=en-US}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
* 2010 - ''Selected writings of Victoria Woodhull. Suffrage, free love, and eugenics''.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press {{ISBN|978-0-8032-1647-1}}<ref name="Time">Cari M. Carpenter (ed.). [https://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/9780803216471_excerpt.pdf Selected writings of Victoria Woodhull. Suffrage, free love, and eugenics]</ref>

== Literature ==
* 2000 - Jacqueline McLean. ''Victoria Woodhull. First woman presidential candidate''. Morgan Reynolds {{ISBN|9781883846473}}
* 2004 - Amanda Frisken. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Bq3rxISOD6AC ''Victoria Woodhull's sexual revolution. Political theater and the popular press in nineteenthe-century America'']. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press {{ISBN|0-8122-3798-6}}
* 2010 - ''Selected writings of Victoria Woodhull. Suffrage, free love, and eugenics''.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press {{ISBN|978-0-8032-1647-1}}<ref name="Time"/>

== See also ==
{{colbegin|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Belva Ann Lockwood]]
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[List of suffragists and suffragettes]]
* [[List of women's rights activists]]
* [[Ezra Heywood]]
* [[Swami Laura Horos]]
* [[Timeline of women's rights (other than voting)]]
* [[Timeline of women's suffrage]]
* [[International Workingmen's Association in America]]
{{colend}}

==References==
===Citations===
<references>
<ref name="Katz">{{Cite journal |last=Katz|first=Elizabeth D.|date=July 30, 2021|title=Sex, Suffrage, and State Constitutional Law: Women's Legal Right to Hold Public Office |journal=Yale Journal of Law & Feminism |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3896499 |language=en|location=Rochester, NY|ssrn=3896499}}</ref>
</references>

===Cited works===
{{refbegin|20em}}
* {{cite book |last1=Dubois |first1=Ellen Carol |last2=Dumenil |first2=Lynn |date=2012 |title=Through Women's Eyes: An American History with Documents |publisher=Bedford Books / St. Martin's |isbn=978-0312676032}}
* {{cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Gerald W. |date=June 1956 |title=Dynamic Victoria Woodhull |journal=American Heritage |volume=7 |issue=4 |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/content/dynamic-victoria-woodhull}}
* {{cite book |last=Frisken |first=Amanda |date=2012 |title=Victoria Woodhull's Sexual Revolution: Political Theater and the Popular Press in Nineteenth-Century America |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |series=EBL-Schweitzer |isbn=978-0812201987 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bq3rxISOD6AC&pg=PA10 |access-date=May 17, 2018}}
* {{cite book |last=Gabriel |first=Mary |date=1998 |title=Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull Uncensored |location=Chapel Hill |publisher=Algonquin Books |isbn=1-56512-132-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/notoriousvictori00gabr}}
* {{cite book |last=Goldsmith |first=Barbara |date=1998 |title=Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull |isbn=0-06-095332-2 |location=New York City |publisher=Harper Perennial |url=https://archive.org/details/otherpowersageo000gold}}
* {{cite book |last=Hayden |first=W. |date=2013 |title=Evolutionary Rhetoric: Sex, Science, and Free Love in Nineteenth-Century Feminism |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |series=Studies in Rhetorics and Feminisms |isbn=978-0809331024 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gsddNlV-rGwC}}
* {{cite book |last=MacPherson |first=Myra |author-link=Myra MacPherson |date=2014 |title=The scarlet sisters : sex, suffrage, and scandal in the Gilded Age |location=New York City |publisher=Twelve |isbn=978-0446570237 |lccn=2013027618 |others=(biography of Victoria Woodhull and [[Tennessee Claflin|Tennessee Celeste Claflin]])}}
* {{cite book |last=Tilton |first=Theodore |date=1871 |title=Biography of Victoria C. Woodhull |location=New York City |publisher=Golden Age |page=4 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015080475877}}
* {{cite book |last=Underhill |first=Lois Beachy |date=1996 |title=The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull |location=Bridgehampton, NY |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=0140256385 |url=https://archive.org/details/womanwhoranforpr00unde}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
===Secondary sources===
{{refbegin|20em}}
* {{cite book |last=Brough |first=James |date=1980 |title=The Vixens |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0-671-22688-6 |quote=Historical Fiction |url=https://archive.org/details/vixensbiography00brou}}
* {{cite book |last=Caplan |first=Sheri J. |date=2013 |title=Petticoats and Pinstripes: Portraits of Women in Wall Street's History |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-1-4408-0265-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Cari M. |date= 2010 |title=Selected Writings of Victoria Woodhull: Suffrage, Free Love, and Eugenics |location=Lincoln |publisher=University of Nebraska Press}}
* {{cite book |last=Collinsworth |first=Eden |date=2025 |title=The Improbable Victoria Woodhull: Suffrage, Free Love, and the First Woman to Run for President |location=New York  |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=9780385549578}}
* {{cite book |title=A history of the national woman's rights movement for twenty years|year= 1871|editor-last= Davis|editor-first= Paulina W.|place= New York: Journeymen Printers' Cooperative Association}}
* {{cite book|title=Madame Presidentess: A novel of Victoria Woodhull|last= Evelina|first=Nicole|publisher=Lawson Gartner Publishing|year= 2007|isbn=978-0996763196}}
* {{cite book|title=The Highest Glass Ceiling : Women's Quest for the American Presidency|last=Fitzpatrick|first=Ellen|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-674-08893-1|location=Cambridge, MA|lccn=2015045620}}
* {{cite book |last=Frisken |first=Amanda |date= 2004 |title=Victoria Woodhull's Sexual Revolution |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=0-8122-3798-6}}
* {{cite book |last= Krull |first=Kathleen |date=2004 |title=A Woman for President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull |publisher=Walker Childrens |isbn=978-0802789082}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Lefkowitz Horowitz |first1=Helen |author-link=Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz |date=2000 |title=Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock, and Conflict over Sex in the United States in the 1870s |journal=The Journal of American History |volume=87 |issue=2 |pages=403–434 |jstor=2568758 |doi=10.2307/2568758 |pmid=17722380 }}
* {{cite book|title=Vicky|last= Marberry|first= M.M.|date=1967|publisher= Funk & Wagnalls|place= New York}}
*{{cite book|title=Free Woman|author=Meade, Marion|date= 1976|publisher= Alfred A. Knopf, Harper & Brothers|author-link=Marion Meade}}
* {{cite book|title=The Right of women to exercise the elective franchise under the Fourteenth Article of the Constitution: speech of A.G. Riddle in the Suffrage Convention at Washington, January 11, 1871: the argument was made in support of the Woodhull memorial, before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, and reproduced in the Convention|last= Riddle|first= A.G.|year= 1871|place= Washington}}
* {{cite book|title=The Terrible Siren|last= Sachs|first= Emanie|date= 1928|publisher= Harper & Brothers}}
* {{cite book|title=Crossing Swords: Mary Baker Eddy vs Victoria Clafin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage – The Untold Story of America's Nineteenth-Century Culture War |last=Safronoff |first=Cindy Peyser |date=2015 |publisher=this one thing |location=Seattle }}
* {{cite book|title=Das Aufsehen erregende Leben der Victoria Woodhull|last=Schrupp|first= Antje|date=2002|publisher= Helmer|language=de}}
* {{cite book|last=Shone|first=Steve J.|year=2019|chapter=The Originality and Political Philosophy of Victoria C. Woodhull|title=Women of Liberty|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|pages=79–130|series=Studies in Critical Social Sciences|volume=135|isbn=978-90-04-39045-4|doi=10.1163/9789004393226_005|s2cid=211977507 }}
* {{cite book |author=The Staff of the Historian's Office and National Portrait Gallery |title=If Elected...' Unsuccessful candidates for the presidency 1796–1968 |date= 1972 |location= Washington, DC |publisher=United States Government Printing Offices}}
* {{cite book |first=Madeleine B.|last=Stern |title=The Victoria Woodhull reader|date=1974|publisher=Weston|isbn=978-0-87730-009-0}}
{{Refend}}

===Primary sources===
{{refbegin|20em}}
*{{cite book | last= Woodhull | first= Victoria C. | title=Free Lover: Sex, Marriage and Eugenics in the Early Speeches of Victoria Woodhull | place=Seattle | orig-year=1874 | date= 2005 | isbn= 1-58742-050-3}}.  Four of her most important early and radical speeches on sexuality as facsimiles of the original published versions. Includes: "The Principle of Social Freedom" (1872), "The Scare-crows of Sexual Slavery" (1873), "The Elixir of Life" (1873), and "Tried as by Fire" (1873–74).
*{{cite book | last= Woodhull | first= Victoria C. | title=Lady Eugenist: Feminist Eugenics in the Speeches and Writings of Victoria Woodhull | place=Seattle|orig-year=1893 | date= 2005 | isbn=1-58742-040-6 }}. Seven of her most important speeches and writings on eugenics. Five are facsimiles of the original, published versions. Includes: "Children – Their Rights and Privileges" (1871), "The Garden of Eden" (1875, publ. 1890), "[[Stirpiculture]]" (1888), "Humanitarian Government" (1890), "The Rapid Multiplication of the Unfit" (1891), and "The Scientific Propagation of the Human Race" (1893)
*{{cite book | last= Woodhull | first= Victoria C. | title=Constitutional equality the logical result of the XIV and XV Amendments, which not only declare who are citizens, but also define their rights, one of which is the right to vote without regard to sex | place=New York | date=1870 }}
*{{cite book | last= Woodhull | first= Victoria C. | title=The Origin, Tendencies and Principles of Government, or, A Review of the Rise and Fall of Nations from Early Historic Time to the Present | url= https://archive.org/details/origintendencies00woodrich | place= New York: Woodhull, Claflin & Company | date= 1871 | publisher= New York: Woodhull, Claflin & Co. }}
*{{cite book | last= Woodhull | first=Victoria C. | title=Speech of Victoria C. Woodhull on the great political issue of constitutional equality, delivered in Lincoln Hall, Washington, Cooper Institute, New York Academy of Music, Brooklyn, Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Opera House, Syracuse: together with her secession speech delivered at Apollo Hall| date= 1871 }}
*{{cite book | last= Woodhull | first= Victoria C. Martin | title=The Rapid Multiplication of the Unfit | place= New York | date=1891 }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links
 |b=no|n=no |q=Victoria Woodhull |s=Victoria Woodhull|v=no |commonscat= Victoria Woodhull|wikt=no
}}
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=40187572}}
* Weston, Victoria. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963742  ''America's Victoria, Remembering Victoria Woodhull''] features [[Gloria Steinem]] and actress [[Kate Capshaw]]. Zoie Films Productions (1998). [[PBS]] and Canadian Broadcasts. {{IMDb title|0963742|America's Victoria: Remembering Victoria Woodhull (1998) (TV)}}
* [http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/woodhull.html Woodhull on harvard.edu]
* [http://www.nwhp.org/tlp/biographies/woodhull/woodhull_bio.html Biographical timeline] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061002122147/http://www.nwhp.org/tlp/biographies/woodhull/woodhull_bio.html |date=October 2, 2006 }}
* [https://www.academia.edu/17179368/_Victoria_Woodhull_Anthony_Comstock_and_Conflict_over_Sex_in_America_in_the_1870s_Journal_of_American_History_Sept._2000 ''Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock, and Conflict over Sex in the United States in the 1870s''], [[The Journal of American History]], 87, No. 2, September 2000, by [[Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz]], pp.&nbsp;403–434
*{{cite journal |last=Athey |first=Stephanie |title=Eugenic Feminisms in Late Nineteenth-Century America: Reading Race in Victoria Woodhull, Frances Willard, Anna Julia Cooper and Ida B. Wells |website=Genders Journal |issue=31 |year=2000 |url=http://www.genders.org/g31/g31_athey.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512221815/http://www.genders.org/g31/g31_athey.html |archive-date=May 12, 2013 |url-status=dead |oclc=1110322243 |ref=none}} {{webarchive |format=addlpages |title=Genders archives at colorado.edu |url=https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.colorado.edu/gendersarchive1998-2013/2000/06/01/eugenic-feminisms-late-nineteenth-century-america-reading-race-victoria-woodhull-frances |date=February 5, 2017}}
* [https://feministgeek.com/teaching-learning/woodhull/ "Legal Contender... Victoria C. Woodhull: First Woman to Run for President"], ''The Women's Quarterly'' (Fall 1988)
*[https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/woodhull.html Victoria Woodhull], Topics in Chronicling America, Library of Congress
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?nawbib:3:./temp/~ammem_baJv::@@@mdb=mcc,nawbib,suffrg,mnwp,rbcmillerbib,awh,awhbib "A lecture on constitutional equality," delivered at Lincoln hall, Washington, D.C., Thursday, February 16, 1871, by Victoria C. Woodhul], ''American Memory'', Library of Congress
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?nawbib:1:./temp/~ammem_baJv::@@@mdb=mcc,nawbib,suffrg,mnwp,rbcmillerbib,awh,awhbib ''A history of the national woman's rights movement, for twenty years, with the proceedings of the decade meeting held at Apollo hall, October 20, 1870, from 1850 to 1870, with an appendix containing the history of the movement during the winter of 1871, in the national capitol,'' comp. by Paulina W. Davis.], American Memory, Library of Congress
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?nawbib:4:./temp/~ammem_baJv::@@@mdb=mcc,nawbib,suffrg,mnwp,rbcmillerbib,awh,awhbib "And the truth shall make you free." A speech on the principles of social freedom, delivered in Steinway hall, Nov. 20, 1871, by Victoria C. Woodhull], American Memory, Library of Congress
* [http://www.sc.edu/library/digital/collections/woodhull.html "Tried as by Fire" at the University of South Carolina Library's Digital Collections Page]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060220193046/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/86.3/mr_11.html Movie review: "America's Victoria, Remembering Victoria Woodhull"], ''The American Journal of History''
*[http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/ Victoria Woodhull & Company],  Victoria-woodhull.com.

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