Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly and Other Newsworthy Moments.

Image Courtesy of: Collection of 40 newspapers, Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly" New York: 8 Feb. 1873–10 June 1876.,

 James E. Arsenault & Company.

 The funds from their brokerage firm allowed the Claflin sisters, Victoria and Tennie to begin publishing their own newspaper— “Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly”

The paper promoted the Free Love movement, women’s suffrage and political reform.

It made history in December 1871 by publishing the first English- language account of Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto”. (NPS, 2021)

The sisters used the paper to publish scandalous material, regardless of the consequences—

Image Courtesy of: Testimony in the great Beecher-Tilton scandal case illustrated / des. & drawn by James E. Cook 46 Desplaines St. ; Commercial Lith. Co. 180 Clark St. , ca. 1875. (Library of Congress)

The paper came into infamy after publishing an account of an affair between one of Woodull’s greatest critics, Henry Ward Beecher, the brother of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” author Harriet Beecher Stowe and one of the most famous religious leaders in the country, and his best frien's wife and female parishioners, Elizabeth Tilton. (Greenspan for History.com, 2018) A quote from Woodhull in the Weekly read:

“I am not charging him with immorality—I applaud his enlightened views. I am charging him with hypocrisy.” (Felsenthal for Politico Magazine, 2015)

Beecher’s relentless criticism of Woodhull's Free Love advocacy drove Victoria to speak out against the adulterous hypocrite. The story created a number of powerful enemies for the sisters. Victoria and Tennie were later arrested on November 2nd, 1872 for sending obscene materials through the mail. The sisters spent about a month in jail.(Greenspan for History.com, 2018)