She became a leader for the women’s suffrage movement and took on anyone and anything that stood in her way.įirst of all, I want to state that this book gave huge insight into Woodhull’s beliefs, motivations, and her determined ways to make women equal in all regards. Even Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton did not publicly stand for these rights for fear of being chastised. You’ll find out why within the pages of the book.Īs this novel represents, Woodhull did quite a bit of TRUE campaigning for women’s rights without a care for social etiquette, and not only the right to vote, but the right to marry, divorce, and have children without government interference. Anthony and group to take the limelight as the suffragettes of history. I vaguely remember hearing of Victoria Woodhull in my university history degree pursuits, yet then again in my research when I was looking into a project on the women’s suffrage movement. However, to most people, the author of the book is correct, she’s been highly swept under the rug for the legendary Susan B.

I’ve read so much about famous people from Ohio in the 1800s lately, it was interesting to add her to the list. Even though her voice was strong it has been quieted to the nation, even in history books. It was a little surprising that Woodhull was born in Licking County, Ohio, which is the state in which I reside. Flynn’s Victoria is exciting and ahead of her time, and the novel sheds light on her remarkable life.I recently read a book I much anticipated, The Renegade Queen by Eva Flynn, which was about the life of the forgotten American feminist Victoria Woodhull. Flynn does not consider Victoria innocent and convincingly suggests that Victoria’s stubborn defiance harms her children and destroys her relationship with James. Satan,” and she lands in New York’s worst prison on trumped-up obscenity charges.

Victoria’s life as a “free lover” is tinder for her enemies, who brand her “Mrs. She campaigns for women’s suffrage and legal protections in marriage, divorce, and business, and she later embraces Marxism she becomes rich as the first female stockbroker, advocating for women with noted suffragette Susan B. There, in the late 1860s, Victoria falls in love with Colonel James Blood, but the specifics of her divorce and remarriage are unclear.

A practicing psychic, Victoria becomes the breadwinner, and they settle in New York with their children. Canning provides his child bride with an escape from her father, until his addictions destroy their marriage and his career. Canning Woodhull in 1853 Ohio, at age 14. After a childhood corrupted by incest, Victoria marries Dr. Flynn’s fictional portrait of women’s-rights champion Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States, is a striking and sobering depiction of a progressive and controversial figure nearly lost in history.