Main Facts

Victoria Woodhull was born on September 23^rd, 1838, in Ohio. In 1870, she produced the journal Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly, which issued the first English translation of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. She became the first woman to campaign for presidency in the United States. She continued her activism in England.

Early Years

Woodhull can be considered as a revolutionary in many respects. She was born Victoria Claflin. She and her sister participated in the spiritualist movement. She became a prominent medium and journeyed with her sister offering entertainment. She wed Canning Woodhull when she was fifteen. They had two children, but they divorced in 1864; she was reported to marry Colonel James H. Blood, who acquainted her with several reformative movements. In 1868, in New York, she and her sister met the prosperous widower Cornelius Vanderbilt, who benefited from the emotional support of Victoria and helped her establish a brokerage company with her sister; it was the first company of this kind to be managed by women.

Revolutionary Attitude

Her journal Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly can be characterized as radical. The two sisters voiced their opinions on women’s suffrage and other social reforms, free love, and birth control. Victoria was a fervent women’s rights advocate. She founded the Equal Rights Party and launched her presidential campaign in 1872. Frederick Douglass, a well-known abolitionist, was probably proclaimed as Vice President, but the degree of his involvement in the campaign is uncertain.

She was strongly criticized for her support of free love. She is reported to have pursued many relationships and married three times. Her opinions on social reforms and sexuality were not well-received by the majority of the public; her support of socialism also puzzled quite many people of the era.

Immigration to England

In 1876, she ended her marriage with Blood, and in 1877, she and her sister immigrated to England, possibly in order to turn over a new leaf. In 1883, she married John Biddulph, a rich English banker. She devoted a lot of time to writing. One of her works from this period is Human Body: The Temple of God (1890). She and her daughter also brought out the magazine Humanitarian over a period of nine years, starting from 1892. She died on June 9^th, 1927, in Bredon’s Norton, England. Victoria Woodhull stands out as a woman who was unafraid to speak her mind. In 1997, the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership was established as a tribute to her.

Are you committed to having your beliefs heard like Victoria? Are you willing to go against the norm in support of what matters most to you?

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