What did Victoria Woodhull do for women's rights?
Victoria Woodhull was a popular and controversial figure in her day. In many ways she was ahead of her time and was an important trailblazer for women in generations to follow. She advocated for equal education for women, women's right to vote and women's right to control their own health decisions.
What does Victoria Woodhull stand for?
Feb 17, 2017 · How did Victoria claflin woodhull seek to influence the treatment of people? Wiki User. ∙ 2017-02-17 17:50:58. Add an answer. Want this question answered? Be notified when an answer is posted.
Who was Victoria Claflin Woodhull?
by Cat Clark. In 1872, anti-abortion feminist Victoria Claflin Woodhull became the first woman to be nominated and to run for President of the United States. Victoria Claflin Woodhull (1838-1927) was a popular and controversial figure in her day. She was a prominent speaker, writer, and activist for women’s rights; one of the first women stockbrokers; and a newspaper publisher.
What are some good books about Victoria Woodhull?
After her divorce from Dr. Woodhull, Victoria began her association with the Free Love movement, which sought to erase the stigma of divorce and make it easier for women to escape abusive marriages. Victoria resettled in New York and married Civil War veteran Colonel James Blood.
What challenges did Victoria Woodhull face?
Woodhull spent Election Day in jail. They also faced libel charges over a second article that accused a Wall Street trader of getting two teenage girls drunk and seducing them. Police took the sisters into custody on November 2, and they remained in jail for about a month.Aug 22, 2018
How old was Victoria Woodhull when she died?
88 years (1838–1927)Victoria Woodhull / Age at death
Was Victoria Woodhull black?
*Victoria Woodhull was born on this date in 1838. She was a white-American leader of the women's suffrage movement.
What did Victoria Woodhull accomplish?
Victoria Woodhull (1838– June 9, 1927) was a leader of the women's suffrage movement. She was the first woman to own a brokerage firm on Wall Street, the first woman to start a weekly newspaper, and an activist for women's rights and labor reform.
Did Victoria Woodhull run for president?
Homer, Ohio, U.S. Victoria Claflin Woodhull, later Victoria Woodhull Martin (September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927), was an American leader of the women's suffrage movement who ran for President of the United States in the 1872 election.
Who was the first woman to vote President?
Do you know who was the first American woman allowed to vote for her husband for president? It was none other than Florence Kling Harding, wife of Warren G. Harding, born on August 15, 1860, in Marion, Ohio.
Who was president for the shortest period of time and when?
William Henry Harrison, an American military officer and politician, was the ninth President of the United States (1841), the oldest President to be elected at the time. On his 32nd day, he became the first to die in office, serving the shortest tenure in U.S. Presidential history.
What did Victoria Woodhull do after her divorce?
Woodhull, Victoria began her association with the Free Love movement, which sought to erase the stigma of divorce and make it easier for women to escape abusive marriages.
Who was Victoria Woodhull's husband?
Canning Woodhull when she was only 15. Victoria soon found out, however, that her husband was a hopeless drunkard who spent his free time in taverns and brothels. Her husband’s freewheeling ways meant that Victoria was required to work outside the home.
What did Victoria and Tennie do to make a fortune?
Victoria and Tennie were able to capitalize on their relationship with Vanderbilt to make a fortune, acting on tips from the tycoon to build a fund of almost $700,000 within six weeks. In February 1870, they opened the brokerage firm of Woodhull, Claflin, and Company, making them the first women to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street.
Who was Victoria Claflin Woodhull?
Victoria Clafin Woodhull in the 1860s. Victoria Claflin Woodhull was one of the 19th century’s most colorful characters. She was a women’s rights and suffrage advocate, a popular public speaker, a newspaper publisher who introduced American audiences to the works of Karl Marx, the first woman to operate a Wall Street brokerage firm, ...
Who was the congressman who gave Victoria Woodhull the chance to address the House Judiciary Committee?
While Victoria planned to attend, she had been communicating with Massachusetts congressmen Benjamin Butler about women’s votes and the recent defeat of the Sixteenth Amendment, which would have guaranteed female suffrage. Butler was one of the amendment’s few supporters and offered Woodhull the chance to address the House Judiciary Committee.
What were Victoria's campaign platforms?
Victoria’s campaign platforms included universal gender and racial equality under the law, civil service and taxation reform, and opposition to land grants given to railroads and other corporations.
Why did Victoria Woodhull believe in spiritualism?
Woodhull believed in spiritualism – she referred to "Banquo's Ghost" from Shakespeare 's Macbeth – because it gave her belief in a better life.
Who was Victoria Woodhull?
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. Woodhull claimed to be the nephew of Caleb Smith Woodhull, mayor of New York City from 1849 to 1851; he was in fact a distant cousin.
Why did Woodhull and Claflin leave the country?
After Cornelius Vanderbilt 's death in 1877, William Henry Vanderbilt paid Woodhull and her sister Claflin $1,000 (equivalent to $24,000 in 2020) to leave the country because he was worried they might testify in hearings on the distribution of the elder Vanderbilt's estate.
What happened to the First International?
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. Karl Marx commented disparagingly on Woodhull in 1872, and expressed approval of the expulsions.
Did Woodhull support prostitution?
Prostitution rumors and stance. She spoke out in person against prostitution and considered marriage for material gain a form of it but in her journal, Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly, Woodhull expressed support for the legalization of prostitution.
Where was Victoria Woodhull's speech?
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.
Who was the nephew of Caleb Smith Woodhull?
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. Woodhull claimed to be the nephew of Caleb Smith Woodhull, mayor of New York City from 1849 to 1851; he was in fact a distant cousin.
Activist, Banker, Presidential Candidate
The story of an activist and businesswoman who was the first woman to run for president of the United States.
Discussion Questions
How did Victoria Woodhull’s childhood and first marriage influence her beliefs about women’s rights?
What was the significance of Victoria Woodhull's Steinway Hall speech?
Press coverage of Victoria Woodhull’s Steinway Hall speech primarily focused on the sensational aspects of the lecture: the hostile crowd, the dramatic interruption by Utica Booker, and the flamboyant final declaration in support of free love. A day after the speech, the New York Times described the lecture as “an attack on the marriage system,” focusing on the core of Woodhull’s critique of marriage.92 Other news outlets focused on the drama of the evening’s proceedings. On November 24, 1871, the Baltimore Sun reported that Woodhull shouted at the crowd “angrily” until the police arrived and ran the story under the headline, “A Free-Love Rumpus.”93 The press coverage from The Sun detailed how Woodhull spoke to a hostile audience, noting that “foes of Free Love were evidently in the majority” and that shouts of “Shame!” ultimately pushed her off the stage.94 The Hartford Daily Courant previewed their
What was John Locke's social contract?
John Locke’s articulation of the social contract emerged from the British political theory movement led by the Whigs. Algernon Sidney, James Tyrrell, and Locke developed a philosophy that grounded political power in acts of “consent.”9 Locke asserted that “consent” made a person “a subject of that government,” and it was through that willing subjection to the “community” that one enjoyed particular rights.10 Locke’s valorizing of choice was grounded in a religious morality that connected law, God, nature, and reason into a set of intrinsic rights afforded by humans. The human capability of reason was a divine gift that afforded certain liberties.11 Locke explained, “The freedom then of man, and liberty of acting according to his own will, is grounded on his having reason which is able to instruct him in that law he is to govern himself by, and make him know how far he is left to the freedom of his own will.”12 In other words, the capacity for reason allowed humans to invent governments that protected their liberty in exchange for their consent to defer to the will of the community.13 This revolutionary conception of the social contract nullified the political authority of monarchies. In the process, it challenged the practice of allocating political and social power according to birth and divine designations. Locke’s vision of governance was truly transformative, and by the late eighteenth century, this version of the social contract had come to heavily influence Western systems of government.
Early Life and Education
Marriages
- First marriage and family
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 … - Second marriage
About 1866, Woodhull married 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, Missouri.
Careers
- Stockbroker
Woodhull, with sister Tennessee (Tennie) Claflin, became the first female stockbrokers 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. Woodhull, Claflin & Compa… - 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 P…
Life in England and Third Marriage
- 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 (equivalent to $24,000 in 2020) 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 …
Views on Abortion and Eugenics
- She was mistakenly remembered being adamant in opposition to abortion. In one of her speeches, she states: At the Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, on an essay called When Is It Not Murder to Take a Life?, she asserts: But later on the same essay she asks: Woodhull also promoted eugenics, which was popular in the early 20th century prior to World War II. It tied into …
Legacy and Honors
- A cenotaph of Victoria Woodhull is located at Tewkesbury Abbey. There is a historical marker located outside the Homer Public Library in Licking County, Ohio to mark Woodhull as the "First Woman Candidate For President of the United States." There is a memorial clock tower in her honor at the Robbins Hunter Museum, Granville, Ohio. A likeness of Victoria made out of linden …
External Links
- Weston, Victoria. America's Victoria, Remembering Victoria Woodhull features Gloria Steinem and actress Kate Capshaw. Zoie Films Productions (1998). PBS and Canadian Broadcasts. America's Victoria:...
- Woodhull on harvard.edu
- Biographical timeline
- Weston, Victoria. America's Victoria, Remembering Victoria Woodhull features Gloria Steinem and actress Kate Capshaw. Zoie Films Productions (1998). PBS and Canadian Broadcasts. America's Victoria:...
- Woodhull on harvard.edu
- Biographical timeline
- 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. 403–434
