HISTORY OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE IN THE U.S.

Woodhull was born Victoria California Allen to a poor family in Homer, Licking County, Ohio. Her father, Reuben Buckman Claflin [1] was a lawyer and her brothers, Hebern and Maldon, printers. [2] Victoria was closely associated during most of her life with her sister Tennessee Celeste (a.k.a. "Tennie C.") Claflin, who was seven years younger than she. Victoria went from rags to riches twice, her first fortune being made on the road as a highly successful magnetic healer before she joined the spiritualist movement in the 1870s.

When she was just 15, Victoria became engaged to a 28-year old Canning (Channing, in some records) Woodhull from a town outside of Rochester, New York. Dr. Woodhull was an Ohio medical doctor at a time when formal medical education and licensing was not required to practice medicine in that state. He met Victoria in 1853 when her family called him to treat her for an illness. According to some accounts, Canning Woodhull claimed he was the nephew of a New York City mayor, who was actually a distant cousin. Victoria married Canning Woodhull in November 1853, just a few short months after they met. Victoria soon learned that her new husband was an alcoholic and a womanizer, and that her own work would often be required to support the family financially. She and Canning had two children: Byron and Zulu (later Zula). According to one account, Byron was born with an intellectual disability in 1854, a condition Victoria believed was caused by her husband's alcoholism. Another story says his disability resulted from a fall from a window.

Woodhull’s support of free love probably originated with her first marriage. Even in loveless marriages, women in United States in the 19th century were bound into unions with few options to escape. Any woman who divorced was stigmatized and often ostracized by society. Victoria believed women should have the choice to leave unbearable marriages, and she rallied against the hypocrisy of married men having mistresses and other sexual dalliances. When she became a prominent national figure, her enemies falsely characterized Victoria’s views on free love as advocating the immoral sexual libertinism being experimented with in such utopian communities as Oneida and Modern Times. Victoria in fact believed in monogamous relationships, although she did state she had the right to also love someone else "exclusively" if she desired.

The Woodhull Freedom Foundation & Federation [1], which works through research, advocacy, and public education to affirm sexual freedom as a fundamental human right, is a global sexual freedom advocacy organization named in honor of Victoria Woodhull.