Dates: September 23, 1838 - June 10, 1927 (some sources give June 9)
Occupation: suffrage activist, stockbroker, writer
Known for: candidate for U.S. President; radicalism as a woman suffrage activist; role in a sex scandal involving Henry Ward Beecher
Also known as: Victoria California Claflin, Victoria Woodhull Martin, "Wicked Woodhull," "Mrs. Satan." With her sister Tennessee, "The Queens of Finance."
Background, Family:
- Mother: Roxanna Buckman Claflin, spiritualist and fortune-teller; claimed to be a clairvoyant
- Father: Reuben Buchman "Buck" Claflin, grist mill operator and con man; known for his traveling medicine show and for his cancer cures as "Dr. R. B. Claflin, American King of Cancers"
- Siblings: Victoria was fifth of seven children (some sources say there were ten children). Siblings included brothers Hebern and Maldon and sisters Tennessee Celeste Claflin and Utica Claflin.
Education:
- self-educated, little formal schooling
Marriage, Children:
- first husband: Canning (or Channing) Woodhull(married November 1853, divorced 1864; physician who sold patent medicines)
- children:
- Byron Woodhull
- Zulu (later Zula) Maude (or Maud) Woodhull
- second husband (?): Colonel James Harvey Blood (may have married about 1866, divorced 1876; fellow Spiritualist and free love advocate)
- third husband: John Biddulph Martin (married October 31, 1883; wealthy British banker)
More About Victoria Woodhull:
Victoria was the fifth of seven children of Roxanna and Reuben "Buck" Claflin. Her mother often attended religious revivals and believed herself a clairvoyant. Escaping some legal troubles, the family traveled around selling patent medicines and telling fortunes, her father styling himself "Dr. R. B. Claflin, American King of Cancers." Victoria spent her childhood with this medicine show, often paired with her younger sister Tennessee in performing and telling fortunes. From the age of 10, Victoria claimed visions of the Greek orator Demosthenes.
First Marriage
Victoria met Canning Woodhull when she was 15, and they married. Canning Woodhull also styled himself a physician, at a time when licensing requirements were non-existent or loose. Canning Woodhull, like Victoria's father, also sold patent medicines. They had a son, Byron, who was born with serious mental handicaps. Victoria blamed her husband's drinking.
Victoria moved to San Francisco, working as an actress and cigar girl and likely also as a prostitute. She rejoined her husband in New York City, where the rest of the Claflin family was living, and Victoria and Tennessee began practicing as mediums. In 1864, the Woodhulls and Tennessee moved to Cincinnati, then Chicago, and then began traveling, keeping ahead of complaints and legal proceedings. At one point in Ohio, Tennessee was charged with manslaughter when her "cancer treatments" failed to cure a patient with breast cancer.
Victoria and Canning had a second child, a daughter, Zulu (later known as Zula). She grew more intolerant of his drinking and womanizing, and of his occasional beatings. Canning became less and less connected to his family, finally leaving entirely. They divorced in 1864.
Spiritualism and Free Love
Likely during her troubled first marriage, Victoria Woodhull became an advocate of free love: the idea that a person has the right to stay with a person only so long as they choose, and that they can choose another (monogamous) relationship when they choose to move on. She met Colonel James Harvey Blood, also a Spiritualist and advocate of free love; they are said to have married in 1866 though no record has been found of them actually marrying. Victoria Woodhull (she kept using her first husband's name), Captain Blood, and Victoria's sister, Tennessee, and mother moved to New York City, when Victoria reported that Demosthenes, in a vision, told her to move there.
In New York City, Victoria established a popular salon where many of the city's intellectual elite gathered. There she became acquainted with Stephen Pearl Andrews, an advocate of both free love and Spiritualism as well of women's rights, and a Congressman, Benjamin F. Butler, who was an advocate of women's rights and free love. Victoria also became more and more interested in women's rights and woman suffrage (the right to vote).
The Queens of Finance and the Weekly
In New York City, the sisters met the wealthy financier, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was widowed in 1868 at age 76. The sisters served as mediums to help him contact the spirit of his dead wife, and he also used their talents as mediums to gain financial insights from the spirit world. Tennessee turned down his proposal of marriage.
With Vanderbilt's advice, the sisters began to make money in the stock market, and soon he had backed them in creating the first woman-owned brokerage on Wall Street, Woodhull, Claflin & Company. She joined the socialist group called Pantarchy, connected with Stephen Pearl Andres and advocating free love and communal sharing of property and communal responsibility for children in the comunity. On April 2, 1870, Victoria Woodhull announced that she would run for president, in the New York Herald where she also published a series of articles promoting Pantarchy principles.
With the money from this venture, in 1870 the sisters began publishing a weekly journal, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly. Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly took on many social issues of the day, including women's rights and legalized prostitution. The journal also exposed many business frauds. It's likely that many of the articles were actually written by Stephen Pearl Andrews and Victoria's husband, Captain Blood. And the journal also took up the cause of Victoria Woodhull's run for president.
