3. The First Woman to Run for President: Rags to Riches (Ep 1)

The American public is outraged by the announcement of a woman running for president. The year is 1872 and the candidate is Victoria Woodhull. 

Victoria Woodhull’s fascinating life started in a rural frontier town in Ohio. By age twelve she had become her family’s main breadwinner, working as a travelling spiritual medium and faith healer. Her eccentric yet poor beginnings provided no clues that she would end up the first woman to run for president of the United States. 

After a marriage breakdown, Victoria used her spiritual healing and beguiling charm to ascend the social ladder of America’s gilded age high society. And, on the way, she found time to become the first woman to open a brokerage on Wall Street. 

Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga on Journey Through Time as we delve into the extraordinary and controversial story of Victoria Woodhull, the "future president” , and explore how her groundbreaking, and some might say unbelievable, bid for the White House reverberated through the fight for equality in America.

To find out more about Find My Past visit: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/journey-through-time

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Assistant Producer: Alice Horrell

Producer: Callum Hill

Senior Producer: Dom Johnson

Exec Producer: Tony Pastor

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