The Hannah Arendt Library: Black Reconstruction in America

On a recent trip to the Hannah Arendt Collection, we came across this copy of Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880, a book written by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois on one of the most pivotal episodes in American history.

Arendt added several annotations to her copy of this work, which according to its cover page serves as "an essay toward the history of the past which black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America."

For example, on page 82 of the book, Arendt made two annotations. (Both markings can be seen in the image at left.) First, she marked a particular section of text with a single vertical line. The passage reads:

The slave, despite every effort, was becoming the center of war. Lincoln, with his uncanny insight, began to see it.

The second passage is marked with two vertical lines and an "X", and the first word of the text is underlined. It proceeds as follows:

Lincoln [underlining is Arendt's] then suggested that provision be made for colonization of such slaves. He simply could not envisage free Negroes in the United States. What would become of them? What would they do? Meanwhile, the slave kept looming.

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