A Look at the First Female to Run for President
Victoria Woodhull Ran for President the Equal Rights Party In 1872
Oct 1, 2008
According to Wikipedia, Woodhull became the first female Wall Street Broker, with her sister established and edited Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly, became a women’s rights advocate, became first female presidential candidate and authored several books.
Woodhull was born on Sep 23, 1829 to a poor family in Homer Licking County, Ohio and died June 9, 1927.
The Run for Presidency in 1872
Woodhull was chosen by the Equal Rights Party to run for president because she represented her party’s platform and was arguably the most famous female in the US during the 1872 elections. She was a respected politician, author and suffragist who fought for equality of all men and women regardless of class, stature, gender, religion, race or creed.
According to a biographical website, Woodhull believed in many of the rights and privileges US citizens take for granted today. She was an advocate of the eight-hour workday and social welfare among many other important issues. She also believed in the concept of free love having been divorced herself.
Woodhull ran at time when women did not have the right to vote and the Civil War was looming in the not so distant past.
Woodhull’s Running Mate Douglas
According to the PBS website Frederick Douglas was born in 1818 and at 23 years old gave his first speech about his life as a slave launching him into the spotlight and declaring him the spokesperson for abolition and racial equality.
After a life of being sold and enslaved throughout Maryland, Douglas escaped from a shipyard and fled to New York at the age of 20.
A few years later Douglas was able to set the stage for the rest of his life by making that fateful speech on his life , the evils of slavery and the perils of slave life.
The Significance of The 1872 Election
Although the 2008 Presidential Election is one of the most important elections in the history of the United States, the election of 1872 was one of the first crucial elections.
The election of 1872 was surrounded by an uproar of equal rights, abolitionists, suffragettes, African American Rights, the right to vote and many other controversial topics.
While the civil war ended over six years before the election of 1872 and had determined the North as victors the country remained divided on important issues making the election especially significant.
Although Barrack Obama, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton has made the 2008 elections historical both Woodhull and Douglas cracked the “Glass Ceiling” long ago making the elections of today possible. And they did this in the face of death threats when most African Americans and Women did not have the right to vote let alone the right to run for President.
 |
