Victoria Woodhull Research Paper

Victoria Woodhull, an extraordinary woman, was born on September 23, 1838 in the small town of Homer, Ohio. Victoria was a lot of firsts for women, first female broker on wall street, first women to address a congressional committee, and also, most notably, the first women to run for president. Victoria was always a free-thinker, and extremely progressive in her roles as an activist, politician, spiritualist and author. In 1868, Victoria and her sister, Tennessee Clafin, began to use their knowledge of spiritualism and work as clairvoyants for Cornelius Vanderbilt, a famous railroad baron. Stock and business tips were taken from this unusual relationship and when the gold panic happened in 1869, with Cornelius’s help, gained $700,000. With his financial support, Victoria and her sister were able to open up their own firm named Woodhull, Clafin & Co., it soon became very publicized and popular, and successfully created the two the first female stockbrokers on Wall Street. …show more content…
Because of this, she became a devout believer in the cause and befriended Benjamin Butler, a massachusetts congressman. She convinced him to get her an invitation to let her speak to the House Judiciary Committee, and on January 11, 1871, Victoria spoke out to the committee, saying that women are already citizens, and because they are citizens they deserve to “also have a voice in the subject matter of taxation.”. Unfortunately for victoria the committee rejected her proposal, but fortunately, because of her speech, was soon thrust into a position among other