06/15/2022
You’ve probably never heard of Victoria Woodhull, so I thought I’d share her story.
Born in 1838 in a rural frontier town in Ohio, Woodhull grew up in abject poverty in an abusive household. She was forcefully married off to an alcoholic womanizer when she was just 15 years old. She had two children, one of whom was born with an intellectual disability. She often had to work outside the home to make ends meet.
After years of abuse and infidelity by her first husband, she was managed to finally get a divorce. Soon after, Woodhull began to support the idea of free love. In 1871, she gave a speech in Steinway Hall, New York City in which she declared:
“To woman, by nature, belongs the right of s*xual determination. When the instinct is aroused in her, then and then only should commerce follow. When woman rises from s*xual slavery to s*xual freedom, into the ownership and control of her s*xual organs, and man is obliged to respect this freedom, then will this instinct become pure and holy; then will woman be raised from the iniquity and morbidness in which she now wallows for existence, and the intensity and glory of her creative functions be increased a hundred-fold…”
In the early 1870s, Woodhull became the first female stockbroker and opened her own brokerage firm on Wall Street and made a fortune advising high profile clients such as the Vanderbilt family. With the money she made from her brokerage, Woodhull founded her own newspaper which reached a national circulation of 20,000 at its peak. The newspaper generated considerable controversy by advocating for women’s suffrage, s*x education, birth control, licensed prostitution, vegetarianism, and short skirts.
In 1872, she became the first woman to run for the President of the United States during a time when women were not even allowed to vote. She also chose Frederick Douglass as her running mate.
She spent Election Day 1872 in Ludlow Street Jail (located on Ludlow Street and Broome Street in Manhattan, New York) after being arrested for publishing an obscene newspaper. She was imprisoned for a month.
Ulysses S. Grant went on to win the presidential election.
