Biography of Victoria Woodhull, Womens Rights Activist

Account of Victoria Woodhull, Women's Rights Activist Victoria Woodhull (conceived Victoria Claflin; September 23, 1838â€June 9, 1927) was a womens rights dissident, stockbroker, and paper editorial manager. She ran for leader of the United States in 1872. Woodhull was likewise associated with the mystic development, and for a period she made her living as a healer. Quick Facts: Victoria Woodhull Known For: Candidacy for U.S. President; radicalism as a womens testimonial extremist; job in a sex embarrassment including Henry Ward BeecherAlso Known As: Victoria California Claflin, Victoria Woodhull Martin, Wicked Woodhull, Mrs. SatanBorn: September 23, 1838 in Homer, OhioParents: Roxanna Claflin and Reuben Buck ClaflinDied: June 9, 1927 in Bredon’s Norton, Worcestershire, EnglandSpouse(s): Canning Woodhull, Colonel James Harvey Blood, John Biddulph MartinChildren: Byron Woodhull, Zulu (later Zula), Maude WoodhullNotable Quote: Of all the frightful brutalities of our age, I am aware of none so horrendous as those that are authorized and shielded by marriage. Early Life Victoria Claflin was naturally introduced to poor people and unusual group of Roxanna and Reuben Buck Claflin as the seventh of 10 youngsters on September 23, 1838. Her mom regularly went to strict recoveries and trusted herself to be visionary. The family went around selling patent medications and telling fortunes, with the dad styling himself Dr. R. B. Claflin, American King of Cancers. Victoria went through her youth with this medication appear, frequently matched with her more youthful sister Tennessee in performing and telling fortunes. First Marriage Victoria met Canning Woodhull when she was 15 and they before long wedded. Canning additionally styled himself as a doctor, while permitting necessities were non-existent or free. Canning Woodhull, similar to Victorias father, sold patent prescriptions. They had a child Byron, who was brought into the world with genuine scholarly inabilities, which Victoria accused on her spouses drinking. Victoria moved to San Francisco and functioned as an on-screen character and stogie young lady. She later rejoined her better half in New York City, where the remainder of the Claflin family was living, and Victoria and her sister Tennessee started rehearsing as mediums. In 1864, the Woodhulls and Tennessee moved to Cincinnati, at that point to Chicago, and afterward started voyaging, staying in front of grievances and lawful procedures. Victoria and Canning later had a subsequent kid, a little girl Zulu (later known as Zula). After some time, Victoria became less open minded of her spouses drinking, womanizing, and periodic beatings. They separated in 1864, with Victoria keeping her exes last name. Mysticism and Free Love Likely during her pained first marriage, Victoria Woodhull turned into a supporter of free love, the possibility that an individual has the privilege to remain with an individual as long as they pick, and that they can pick another (monogamous) relationship when they need to proceed onward. She met Colonel James Harvey Blood, additionally a mystic and a backer of free love. They are said to have hitched in 1866, however there are no records of this marriage. Victoria Woodhull, Captain Blood, Victorias sister Tennessee, and their mom in the long run moved to New York City. In New York City, Victoria set up a well known salon where a large number of the citys scholarly world class accumulated. There she got familiar with Stephen Pearl Andrews, a supporter of free love, mysticism, and womens rights. Congressman Benjamin F. Steward was another colleague and backer of womens rights and free love. Through her salon, Victoria turned out to be progressively intrigued by womens rights and testimonial. Womens Suffrage Movement In January 1871, the National Woman Suffrage Association met in Washington, D.C. On January 11, Victoria Woodhull masterminded to affirm before the House Judiciary Committee on the subject of womens testimonial, and the NWSA show was delayed a day with the goal that those going to could see Woodhull affirming. Her discourse was composed with Rep. Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts and put forth the defense that ladies previously reserved the privilege to cast a ballot dependent on the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The NWSA administration at that point welcomed Woodhull to address their get-together. The administration of the NWSA-which included Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Isabella Beecher Hooker-was so taken with the discourse that they started advancing Woodhull as a supporter and speaker for womens testimonial. Theodore Tilton was a supporter and official of the NWSA and furthermore a dear companion of one of Woodhulls pundits, Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. Elizabeth Cady Stanton revealed to Victoria Woodhull privately that Tiltons spouse Elizabeth had been engaged with an illicit relationship with the Reverend Beecher. At the point when Beecher would not present Woodhull at a November 1871 talk at Steinway Halls, she visited him secretly and apparently defied him about his undertaking. In any case, he would not do the distinctions at her talk. In her discourse the following day, she alluded by implication to the issue for instance of sexual pietism and twofold gauges. In view of the outrage this caused, Woodhull lost a lot of business, however her talks were still sought after. She and her family experienced difficulty paying their bills,â however, and were in the long run removed from their home. Presidential Candidacy In May 1872, a breakaway gathering from the NWSA-the National Radical Reformers-assigned Woodhull as a possibility for U.S. leader of the Equal Rights Party. They named Frederick Douglass, a paper manager, previous slave, and abolitionist, as VP. Theres no record that Douglass acknowledged the selection. Susan B. Anthony contradicted the designation of Woodhull, while Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Isabella Beecher Hooker upheld her run for the administration. Beecher Scandal Woodhull kept on having noteworthy budgetary issues, in any event, suspending her diary for a couple of months. Maybe reacting to proceeded with censures of her ethical character, on November 2, not long before Election Day, Woodhull uncovered points of interest of the Beecher/Tilton undertaking in a discourse and distributed a record of the issue in the continued Weekly. She additionally distributed an anecdote about a stockbroker, Luther Challis, and his enticement of young ladies. Her objective was not the ethical quality of the sexual undertakings, however the false reverence that allowed influential men to be explicitly free while ladies were denied such opportunity. The response to the open disclosure of the Beecher/Tilton issue was an extraordinary open clamor. Woodhull was captured under the Comstock Law for circulation of profane material through the mail and accused of slander. Meanwhile, the presidential political race was held, and Woodhull got no official votes. (Some dispersed decisions in favor of her were likely not detailed.) In 1877, after the outrage had died down, Tennessee, Victoria, and their mom moved to England, where they lived serenely. Life in England In England, Woodhull met well off investor John Biddulph Martin, who proposed to her. They didn't wed until 1882, obviously on account of his familys resistance to the match, and she attempted to separate herself from her previous radical thoughts on sex and love. Woodhull utilized her new hitched name, Victoria Woodhull Martin, in her works and open appearances after her marriage. Tennessee wedded Lord Francis Cook in 1885. Victoria distributed Stirpiculture, or the Scientific Propagation of the Human Race in 1888; with Tennessee, The Human Body, the Temple of God in 1890; and in 1892, Humanitarian Money: The Unsolved Riddle. Woodhull ventured out to the United States once in a while and was assigned in 1892 as the presidential competitor of the Humanitarian Party. Britain remained her main living place. In 1895, she came back to distributing with another paper, The Humanitarian, which pushed genetic counseling. In this endeavor, she worked with her little girl Zulu Maude Woodhull. Woodhull likewise established a school and a farming show and got engaged with various philanthropic causes. John Martin passed on in March 1897, and Victoria didn't remarry. Passing In her later years, Woodhull got associated with the womens testimonial crusades drove by the Pankhursts. She kicked the bucket on June 9, 1927, in England. Heritage Despite the fact that she was viewed as dubious in her time, Woodhull has come to be generally appreciated for her trailblazing endeavors to make sure about rights for ladies. Two womens rights associations the Woodhull Insititute for Ethical Leadership and the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance-were named in her respect, and in 2001 Woodhull was added to the National Womens Hall of Fame. Sources Gabriel, Mary. Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1998.Goldsmith, Barbara. Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull. Granta, 1998.Underhill, Lois Beachy. The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull. Penguin, 1996.