Victoria Woodhull
| Victoria Woodhull | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Candidate for President of the United States |
|
|
Election date 1872 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Victoria California Claflin September 23, 1838 Homer, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | June 9, 1927 (aged 88) Bredon's Norton, Worcestershire, England |
| Resting place | Cremated and ashes scattered at sea from Newhaven, Sussex, England |
| Nationality | US citizen, native born |
| Spouse(s) | Canning Woodhull (m.1853–?) Colonel James Blood (m. c. 1865–1876) John Biddulph Martin (m. 1883–1901) |
| Children | Byron and Zula Maude Woodhull |
| Parents | Reuben Buckman Claflin, Roxanna Hummel Claflin |
| Relatives |
Tennessee Claflin, sister Caleb Smith Woodhull, cousin |
| Education | no formal education |
| Occupation | suffragist, politician, feminist, writer. |
| Known for |
Politics women's rights women's suffrage feminism civil rights anti-slavery journalism free love |
| Religion | Spiritualist |
| Signature |  |
| Mrs. President | |
 Get to Know The First Woman Who Ever Ran for President, 7:57, The Takeaway, WNYC
|
Victoria Claflin Woodhull, later Victoria Woodhull Martin (September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927) was an American leader of the woman's suffrage movement.
In 1872, Woodhull ran for President of the United States. While many historians and authors agree that Woodhull was the first woman to run for President of the United States, some have questioned that priority given issues with the legality of her run. They disagree with classifying it as a true candidacy because she was younger than the constitutionally mandated age of 35. However, election coverage by contemporary newspapers does not suggest age was a significant issue. The presidential inauguration was in March 1873. Woodhull's 35th birthday was in September 1873.
An activist for women's rights and labor reforms, Woodhull was also an advocate of being able to freely love who you choose, with the nobility of free love, by which she meant the freedom to marry, divorce, and bear children without government interference.
Woodhull twice went from rags to riches, her first fortune being made on the road as a magnetic healer before she joined the spiritualist movement in the 1870s. While 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), her role as a representative of these movements was powerful. Together with her sister, Tennessee Claflin, she was the first woman to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street; they were among the first women to found a newspaper, Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly, which began publication in 1870.
Woodhull was politically active in the early 1870s, when she was nominated as the first woman candidate for the United States presidency, for which she is best known. Woodhull was the candidate in 1872 from the Equal Rights Party, supporting women's suffrage and equal rights. Her arrest on obscenity charges a few days before the election, for publishing an account of the alleged adulterous affair between the prominent minister Henry Ward Beecher and Elizabeth Tilton, added to the sensational coverage of her candidacy. While she did not receive any electoral votes, she did receive some popular votes. An unrelated man in Texas admitted to voting for her in 1872. He said he was casting his vote against Grant. Since votes cast for her appear to have not been counted, it can't be determined how many votes she received, but it was more than none. Biographer M.M. Marberry was wrong when he said she received 0 votes.
...
Wikipedia