[3] An activist for women's rights and labor reforms, Woodhull was also an advocate of "free love", by which she meant the freedom to marry, divorce and bear children without social restriction or government interference.

[7] 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[8]).

Her paper had published an account of the alleged adulterous affair between the prominent minister Henry Ward Beecher and Elizabeth Richards Tilton that had rather more detail than was considered proper at the time.

[13] Victoria California Claflin was born the seventh of ten children (six of whom survived to maturity),[14] in the rural frontier town of Homer, Licking County, Ohio.

[20] She based her incest claim on a statement in Theodore Tilton's biography: "But the parents, as if not unwilling to be rid of a daughter whose sorrow was ripening her into a woman before her time, were delighted at the unexpected offer.

[24][page needed] As they grew older, Victoria became close to her sister Tennessee Celeste Claflin (called Tennie), seven years her junior and the last child born to the family.

[citation needed] Women who married in the United States during the 19th century were bound into the unions, even if loveless, with few options to escape.

[37] A personal account from one of Colonel Blood's friends suggests that Tennessee was held against her will in a brothel until Woodhull rescued her, but this story remains unconfirmed.

[37] While Woodhull's earlier radicalism had stemmed from the Christian socialism of the 1850s, for most of her life, she was involved in Spiritualism and she did not use religious language in her public speeches.

[40] Woodhull repudiated her earlier views on free love, and began idealizing purity, motherhood, marriage, and the Bible in her writings.

[45] Woodhull, with sister Tennessee (Tennie) Claflin, became the first female stockbrokers and in 1870 they opened a brokerage firm on Wall Street.

On one occasion she told him to sell his shares short for 150 cents per stock, which he duly followed, and earned millions on the deal.

"[citation needed] Many contemporary men's journals (e.g., The Days' Doings) published sexualized images of the pair running their firm (although they did not participate in the day-to-day business of the firm), linking the concept of publicly minded, un-chaperoned women with ideas of "sexual immorality" and prostitution.

Henry Ward Beecher, a renowned preacher of Brooklyn's Plymouth Church, had condemned Woodhull's free love philosophy in his sermons but a member of his church, Theodore Tilton, disclosed to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a colleague of Woodhull, that his wife had confessed Beecher was committing adultery with her.

Some characterized her as opportunistic and unpredictable; in one notable incident, she had a run-in with Anthony during a meeting of the National Women's Suffrage Association (NWSA).

Woodhull learned how to infiltrate the all-male domain of national politics and arranged to testify on women's suffrage before the House Judiciary Committee.

Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Isabella Beecher Hooker, saw Woodhull as the newest champion of their cause.

"[52] With the power of her first public appearance as a woman's rights advocate, Woodhull moved to the leadership circle of the suffrage movement.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper printed a full-page engraving of Woodhull, surrounded by prominent suffragists, delivering her argument.

In 1871, the Germans expelled most of the English-speaking members of the First International's U.S. sections, leading to the quick decline of the organization, as it failed to attract the ethnic working class in America.

[60] Woodhull was nominated for president of the United States by the newly formed Equal Rights Party on May 10, 1872, at Apollo Hall, New York City.

With the publication of the scandal, Theodore Tilton, Elizabeth's husband, sued Beecher for "criminal conversation" (adultery) and alienation of affection.

[70] She was active in the pioneering days of female motorists, with the Ladies' Automobile Club, and was reputed to have been the first woman to drive a car in Hyde Park, London and in the English country roads.

[73]At the Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, on an essay called When Is It Not Murder to Take a Life?, she asserts: Many women who would be shocked at the very thought of killing their children after birth, deliberately destroy them previously.

She advocated, among other things, sex education, "marrying well," and pre-natal care as a way to bear healthier children and prevent mental and physical disease.

In 2006, publisher Michael W. Perry discovered writings which show that Woodhull supported the forcible sterilization of people who she considered unfit to breed.

This was in stark contrast to her earlier works in which she advocated social freedom and opposed governmental interference in matters of love and marriage.

[77] A historical marker outside the Homer Public Library in Licking County, Ohio describes Woodhull as the "First Woman Candidate For President of the United States.

She was honored by the Office of the Manhattan Borough President in March 2008 and she was also included on a map of historical sites which are related or dedicated to important women.

[86] In March 2017, Amazon Studios announced production of a movie based on her life, produced by and starring Brie Larson as Victoria Woodhull.