The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, From the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement

Anna Thomas Jeanes was a modest woman who grew up in a Quaker community in 19th-century Philadelphia as the youngest of 10 children. Her mother passed away when she was just four. Her father was a wealthy merchant, but the family never flaunted their wealth. Six of the Jeanes children lived to adulthood, and all of them “devoted themselves to learning” (145). One of Anna’s brothers became a doctor and founded a hospital. Another was an amateur paleontologist and contributed a number of fossils to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

The Jeanes were part of Philadelphia’s Quaker community, along with a number of other prominent individuals. The Quaker belief in the “Divine Immanence” of every person translates to a belief in inherent equality that put many Quakers “at the forefront” of various social movements like suffrage and abolition. However, this didn’t stop William Penn, who bought Pennsylvania and established it as a Quaker community, from enslaving people.

Anna never married and was financially supported by her father and brothers. By 1894, she was 72 years old and the only surviving member of her family. None of her siblings had children, so she inherited her family’s multi-million-dollar fortune.