Selected Writings of Victoria Woodhull

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Selected Writings of Victoria Woodhull

Suffrage, Free Love, and Eugenics

Victoria C. Woodhull
Edited and with an introduction by Cari M. Carpenter

Legacies of Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers Series

382 pages
2 photographs

Paperback

May 2010

978-0-8032-1647-1

$35.00 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

May 2010

978-0-8032-2995-2

$35.00 Add to Cart
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About the Book

Suffragist, lecturer, eugenicist, businesswoman, free lover, and the first woman to run for president of the United States, Victoria C. Woodhull (1838–1927) has been all but forgotten as a leading nineteenth-century feminist writer and radical. Selected Writings of Victoria Woodhull is the first multigenre, multisubject collection of her materials, giving contemporary audiences a glimpse into the radical views of this nineteenth-century woman who advocated free love between consensual adults and who was labeled “Mrs. Satan” by cartoonist Thomas Nast. Woodhull’s texts reveal the multiple conflicting aspects of this influential woman, who has been portrayed in the past as either a disreputable figure or a brave pioneer.
 
This collection of letters, speeches, essays, and articles elucidate some of the lesser-known movements and ideas of the nineteenth century. It also highlights, through Woodhull’s correspondence with fellow suffragist Lucretia Mott, tensions within the suffragist movement and demonstrates the changing political atmosphere and role of women in business and politics in the late nineteenth century.
 
With a comprehensive introduction contextualizing Woodhull’s most important writing, this collection provides a clear lens through which to view late nineteenth-century suffragism, labor reform, reproductive rights, sexual politics, and spiritualism.

Author Bio

Cari M. Carpenter is an assistant professor of English at West Virginia University and the author of Seeing Red: Anger, Sentimentality, and American Indians.

Praise

"Victoria Woodhull's contributions to 19th-century feminism are often overshadowed by those of such well-known figures as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. This updated, concise reader of Woodhull's essential writings reveals her deep support of women's suffrage and of radical social theories relating to love, marriage, and family."—E.A. McAllister, CHOICE

"Carpenter's collection provides to scholars, students, and a broader audience of general interest readers an affordable collection of Woodhull's key texts. . . . This collection, complete with a full index and footnotes, has the potential to inaugurate a new era of Woodhull scholarship and commentary."—Amanda Frisken, Legacy

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  

List of Illustrations  

Note on the Text 

Introduction     

1. The Woodhull Manifesto    

2. Killing No Murder   

3. A Page of American History: Constitution of the United States of the World

4. The Memorial of Victoria C. Woodhull  

5. Constitutional Equality   

6. The New Rebellion: The Great Secession Speech of Victoria C. Woodhull     

7. My Dear Mrs. Bladen 

8. Correspondence between the Victoria League and Victoria C. Woodhull: The First Candidate for the Next Presidency

9. My Dear Mrs. Mott   

10. "And the Truth Shall Make You Free": A Speech on the Principles of Social Freedom    

11. A Speech on the Impending Revolution 

12. The Correspondence of the Equal Rights Party     

13. Speech of Victoria C. Woodhull 

14. The Beecher-Tilton Scandal Case

15. The Naked Truth; or, the Situation Reviewed!     

16. Dear Lucretia Mott 

17. Reformation or Revolution, Which? or, Behind the Political Scenes  

18. The Spirit World: A Highly Interesting Communication from Mrs. Victoria C. Woodhull  

19. The Elixir of Life; or, Why Do We Die? An Oration

20. The Scare-Crows of Sexual Slavery    

21. Tried as by Fire; or, the True and the False, Socially 

22. The Garden of Eden; or, Paradise Lost and Found  

23. Stirpiculture; or, the Scientific Propagation of the Human Race    

24. The Rapid Multiplication of the Unfit

25. I Am the Daughter of Time

26. Woman Suffrage in the United States  

Notes

Bibliography     

Index

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