Editing Victoria Woodhull (section)

== Early life and education ==
Victoria California Claflin was born the seventh of ten children (six of whom survived to maturity),<ref name=Johnson1956_45>{{harvnb|Johnson|1956|p=45}}</ref> in the rural frontier town of [[Homer, Ohio|Homer]], [[Licking County, Ohio]].  Her mother, Mrs Roxanna "Roxy"{{r|Johnson1956_45}} Hummel Claflin, was born to unmarried parents and was illiterate.{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|loc=[https://archive.org/details/otherpowersageof00gold/page/20 p. 20] (Alfred A. Knopf edition - ISBN 0-394-55536-8)}} She had become a follower of the Austrian mystic [[Franz Mesmer]] and the new [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualist]] movement.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vogue.com/article/victoria-woodhull-first-woman-to-run-for-president|title=Move Over, Hillary! Victoria Woodhull Was the First Woman to Run for U.S. President|website=Vogue|date=April 13, 2015|language=en|access-date=September 12, 2019}}</ref>  Her father, Reuben Buckman "Buck" Claflin, Esq.,{{r|Johnson1956_45}}<ref>1850 federal census, Licking, Ohio; Series M432, Roll 703, p. 437; father listed as Buckman, brothers incorrectly transcribed as Hubern (Hubert) and Malven (Melvin).</ref><ref name="Wight">Wight, Charles Henry, ''Genealogy of the Claflin Family, 1661–1898''. New York: Press of William Green. 1903. ''passim'' (use index)</ref> was a con man, lawyer and [[snake oil salesman]].{{r|Johnson1956_45}}  He came from an impoverished branch of the [[Massachusetts]]-based Scots-American [[Claflin family]], semi-distant cousins to Massachusetts Governor [[William Claflin]].<ref name="Wight" />

Woodhull was whipped by her father, according to biographer Theodore Tilton.{{sfn|Tilton|1871|p=4}}  Biographer Barbara Goldsmith claimed she was also starved and sexually abused by her father when still very young.{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|pp=51–52}} Goldsmith based her incest claim on a statement in Theodore Tilton's biography: "But the parents, as if not unwilling to be rid of a daughter whose sorrow was ripening her into a woman before her time, were delighted at the unexpected offer."{{sfn|Tilton|1871|p=14}}{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|p=457}} Biographer Myra MacPherson disputes Goldsmith's claim that "Vickie often intimated that he sexually abused her" as well as the accuracy of Goldsmith's saying that "Years later, Vickie would say that Buck made her 'a woman before my time.{{'"}}{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|pp=51–52}} Macpherson wrote, "Not only did Victoria not say this, there was no 'often' involved, nor was it about incest."{{sfn|MacPherson|2014|p=346}}

Woodhull believed in [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]] – she referred to "Banquo's Ghost" from [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Macbeth]]'' – because it gave her belief in a better life. She said that she was guided in 1868 by [[Demosthenes]] to what symbolism to use supporting her theories of Free Love.{{sfn|Goldsmith|1998|}}{{Page needed|date=February 2021}}

As they grew older, Victoria became close to her sister [[Tennessee Celeste Claflin]] (called Tennie), seven years her junior and the last child born to the family. As adults, they collaborated in founding a stock brokerage and newspaper in New York City.{{r|Johnson1956_45}}

By age 11, Woodhull had only three years of formal education, but her teachers found her to be extremely intelligent. She was forced to leave school and home with her family when her father, after having "insured it heavily,"{{r|Johnson1956_46}} burned the family's rotting [[gristmill]]. When he tried to get compensated by insurance, his arson and fraud were discovered; he was run off by a group of town [[vigilante]]s.{{r|Johnson1956_46}} The town held a "benefit" to raise funds to pay for the rest of the family's departure from Ohio.{{r|Johnson1956_46}}