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 manager. She ran for leader of the United States in 1872. Woodhull was additionally 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 lobbyist; job in a sex outrage 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 horrendous brutalities of our age, I am aware of none so appalling as those that are endorsed and protected by marriage. Early Life Victoria Claflin was naturally introduced to poor people and whimsical group of Roxanna and Reuben Buck Claflin as the seventh of 10 kids on September 23, 1838. Her mom regularly went to strict restorations and trusted herself to be visionary. The family went around selling patent meds 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 prerequisites were non-existent or free. Canning Woodhull, similar to Victorias father, sold patent meds. 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 filled in 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 grumblings and legitimate procedures. Victoria and Canning later had a subsequent youngster, a little girl Zulu (later known as Zula). After some time, Victoria became less open minded of her spouses drinking, womanizing, and incidental 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 backer of free love, the possibility that an individual has the option 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 promoter 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 end moved to New York City. In New York City, Victoria set up a mainstream salon where huge numbers 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. Head servant was another associate 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 orchestrated 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 presented 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 authority at that point welcomed Woodhull to address their social affair. The authority 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 promoter 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 secretly 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 allegedly stood up to 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 fraud and twofold measures. On account of the embarrassment 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 inevitably ousted from their home. Presidential Candidacy In May 1872, a breakaway gathering from the NWSA-the National Radical Reformers-designated Woodhull as a possibility for U.S. leader of the Equal Rights Party. They assigned Frederick Douglass, a paper editorial manager, previous slave, and abolitionist, as VP. Theres no record that Douglass acknowledged the selection. Susan B. Anthony restricted the designation of Woodhull, while Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Isabella Beecher Hooker bolstered her run for the administration. Beecher Scandal Woodhull kept on having critical monetary issues, in any event, suspending her diary for a couple of months. Maybe reacting to proceeded with criticisms 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 a tale about a stockbroker, Luther Challis, and his enticement of young ladies. Her objective was not the ethical quality of the sexual issues, yet 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 objection. Woodhull was captured under the Comstock Law for appropriation of disgusting material through the mail and accused of slander. Meanwhile, the presidential political decision was held, and Woodhull got no official votes. (Some dispersed decisions in favor of her were likely not announced.) In 1877, after the embarrassment had died down, Tennessee, Victoria, and their mom moved to England, where they lived easily. Life in England In England, Woodhull met rich broker John Biddulph Martin, who proposed to her. They didn't wed until 1882, evidently due to his familys restriction 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 made a trip to the United States every so often and was selected in 1892 as the presidential applicant of the Humanitarian Party. Britain remained her main living place. In 1895, she came back to distributing with another paper, The Humanitarian, which supported selective breeding. In this endeavor, she worked with her little girl Zulu Maude Woodhull. Woodhull additionally established a school and a farming show and got engaged with various compassionate causes. John Martin kicked the bucket 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 questionable in her time, Woodhull has come to be broadly 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.