Victoria Woodhull

An American leader of the women's suffrage movement who was the first woman to run for President of the United States in the 1872 election. Together with her sister, Tennessee Claflin, she was the first woman to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street. They were among the first women to found a newspaper in the United States, Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly, which began publication in 1870.

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.

When she was 14, Victoria met 28-year-old Canning Woodhull, a doctor from a town outside Rochester, New York. Her family had consulted him to treat the girl for a chronic illness. Woodhull, an alcoholic and womanizer, abducted Victoria to marry her. Victoria divorced her husband and kept his surname. In 1866, Woodhull married Colonel James Harvey Blood, who also was marrying for a second time.