By Summer Knegtmans
In 1872, Victoria Woodhull did the unthinkable: she ran for president of the United States. Woodhull’s campaign was an act of rebellion against an America that could not yet grasp that women could vote, let alone hold the highest office. Woodhull was no average political activist – she was a stockbroker, newspaper publisher, psychic, and an ardent champion of women’s rights and free love. Through her bold choices throughout her life, she paved a path for future women in politics.
More than 150 years later, Woodhull’s legacy remains particularly relevant. Although Kamala Harris did not win the fight for the US presidency against Donald Trump, the hope remains that the US will one day be led by a woman. Her campaign reflected Woodhull’s once courageous fight for female representation at the highest level, and Victoria’s statement that “someday, one day, a woman will lead this country” sounds now more than ever like a promise that is drawing ever closer.
A life built on showmanship, deception, and independence
Victoria Claflin Woodhull was born on 23 September 1838 in the village of Homer in the state of Ohio. Her family was very notorious for its unorthodox lifestyle. For example, her father, Reuben Buckman Claflin, was a cunning man who scavenged his income with tricks and petty scams, such as gambling games and false divination. He ran a one-man circus and used his children’s talents to make money. From an early age, Victoria and her sister Tennessee (“Tennie”) performed as clairvoyants and “healers,” entertaining audiences with predictions and diagnosing “mental ailments”. Thanks to this upbringing, the Woodhull children had a natural flair for show business and knew how to captivate audiences.
While the itinerant lifestyle brought income, it did not bring stability. Consequently, the family’s daughters were married off at an early age. Thus, at the age of fifteen, Victoria was forced to marry Doctor Canning Woodhull, who admired her charismatic personality and spiritual gifts. However, the marriage brought more misery than happiness. Victoria suffered from her husband’s poverty and alcohol problems. However, the painful experiences within this marriage also gave her the strength to take control of her own life and fight against the societal restrictions imposed on women in her time. Moreover, due to her unorthodox childhood, Victoria learned valuable lessons about resilience and independence that helped her further in this struggle.
Woodhull, Claflin & Company: A Breakthrough on Wall Street in NYC
After her divorce from Canning, Victoria and Tennie moved to New York City, where they were determined to insinuate themselves into the heart of the male-dominated world of Wall Street. In the 1860s and 1870s, the city experienced a period of economic expansion and new opportunities, and the Woodhull sisters seized them with both hands. Thanks to Tennie’s spiritual gifts and their association with Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of America’s wealthiest businessmen, the sisters gained access to the financial world. Vanderbilt was fascinated by the spiritualistic séances Tennie performed, and with his financial support, Victoria and Tennie opened Woodhull, Claflin & Company, the first female-run brokerage firm on Wall Street in 1870.
Woodhull, Claflin & Company was a pioneering venture that demonstrated that women could prove themselves just as well as men in the financial industry. By the press, the sisters were soon dubbed “the Enchanted Brokers,” a nickname that reflected their charm and ability to challenge financial conventions. The success of their brokerage gave Victoria financial independence, which allowed her to build a platform for her ideals and her vision for a more just society.
Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly
With the wealth they had accumulated on Wall Street, Victoria and Tennie founded their own newspaper in 1870: Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly. Victoria urged her contributors to write “under reserve and with complete freedom” on every conceivable subject, without resorting to lies and coarseness. This radical weekly covered various topics: from women’s suffrage and spiritualism to economic reform. It became their mouthpiece to confront America with the double standards surrounding women’s rights and sexuality. Victoria herself wrote inspired pieces criticizing hypocrisy in society and advocating for equality. For her, and for many women who felt trapped by strict social rules, the newspaper provided an opportunity to be heard.
The Weekly’s most controversial article was a revealing report on Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, a preacher who was known for his public condemnations of free love – but was himself having an affair. Woodhull aimed to expose the hypocrisy of America’s puritanical values. The publication caused a huge scandal, which eventually led to the arrest of Victoria due to obscenity charges. This brought her both fame and notoriety and strengthened her conviction to continue in her struggle against the establishment.
Fight for social equality and Free Love
Victoria’s ideals went beyond women’s rights. She also identified with the ideal of social equality and the ideology of communism and even became the leader of Group 12 of the Communist International in the United States. She was the first to publish an English translation of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto in America, seeking to unite the working class and feminist movements. This move caused great controversy and caused Karl Marx to publicly distance himself from her. Despite this opposition, Woodhull continued to advocate tirelessly for equality and social reforms that were far ahead of their time.
Victoria’s views on free love were essential to her beliefs and her political outlook. At a time when women had little autonomy over their own lives, Woodhull advocated for the right to love whomever they wanted without interference from the government or society. Her position went so far as to advocate the possibility of ending marriage when love disappeared, without social consequences. She argued that true equality could only be achieved when women were completely free in their choices about love, marriage, and family life. This radical vision was fueled in part by her own turbulent experiences with love, including her first marriage and divorce.
Presidential campaign to election day
In 1872, Victoria made history by becoming the first woman in the United States to launch a presidential campaign. She ran for office on behalf of the Equal Rights Party, with formerly enslaved and abolitionist Frederick Douglass as her running mate. Yet they never met, and Frederick neither accepted the nomination nor acknowledged the campaign. The platform she ran on included revolutionary ideas for the time, such as women’s suffrage, labor rights, tax rates proportional to income levels, and the abolition of marriage laws. Her candidacy was not only symbolic; it was a bold move to confront the nation with its deep-seated prejudices and limitations.
However, Woodhull’s candidacy also brought division within the women’s movement. Many feminists admired her boldness, while others, such as Susan B. Anthony, feared that Victoria’s radical views on sexuality would undermine their own fight for women’s rights. Anthony distanced herself from her out of fear that controversial views on free love and relationships would harm women’s suffrage. However, that did not stop Victoria. She remained resolute and stood openly for her ideals, determined to bring about profound social change.
Election Day in 1872 did not go as Victoria had hoped. While the eighteenth president Ulysses S. Grant was re-elected to a second term, Victoria Woodhull was jailed on charges of “libel” as a result of her revelations about Reverend Beecher. It was a harsh reminder of the obstacles women faced when challenging societal norms. Her campaign, paid for entirely out of her own pocket, had completely exhausted her financially. After a spate of lawsuits and setbacks, she lost her luxurious home, and her possessions and even had to sleep in her office for some time. Despite the fact that her presidential campaign ended in a jail cell rather than in the White House, the importance of her candidacy did not depend on the outcome. Her campaign would become an inspiration to generations of women and marked a breakthrough in the fight for political and personal autonomy for women.
A new beginning in England
After the failure of her political ambitions in the United States, Victoria Woodhull moved to England in 1877, where she began a new life in the English high society. Here she met banker John Biddulph Martin, whom she married and who financially supported her ideals. His funds enabled her to found The Humanitarian: a magazine devoted to moral and social reform, in which she expressed less revolutionary and more moralistic views. The magazine covered topics such as education, alcoholism, and the role of women, but lacked the sharp tone of her earlier publications. In her new role, Victoria championed women’s education and agricultural improvements. From her country home in the Cotswolds, she created a lively meeting place for intellectuals, writers, and artists, where she continued to argue modestly but passionately for social reform and equal opportunity for women.
Woodhull’s inheritance
Victoria Woodhull’s life was full of contradictions and pioneering achievements. A pioneer of women’s rights and political activism, she left a lasting impact that still resonates. Today, she is remembered as one of the first women to break the boundaries of gender and politics in the United States. Her vision feels particularly relevant in light of the 2024 US presidential election, in which Kamala Harris stood her ground in the battle for the highest office against Donald Trump.
Although Harris did not win the election, her campaign remains an important milestone in breaking the glass ceiling for women in politics. Harris’s determination and achievements, despite enormous challenges, reflect the fight Woodhull once waged for equal opportunity. Victoria’s statement, ‘someday, one day, a woman will lead this country,’ remains a powerful reminder that the road to progress is often long and full of obstacles, but that hope and the fight for equality always remain.
Woodhull’s fight for women’s rights was a precursor to the many strides that have since been made. Her life reminds us that progress, however messy and challenging it can be, is worth continuing to pursue. Victoria Woodhull died on 9 June 1927, but her contributions to women’s rights and political engagement continue to inspire us. Her invincible spirit is an example to all who continue to fight for a more just future.
Picture: Pixabay
