100 Objects #5: Blue Back Speller

This episode of 99% Invisible's '100 Objects' series examines the Blue Back Speller, an ordinary schoolbook that became a symbol of hope and resistance. Enslaved people in the United States risked their lives to possess this small book, which taught reading and moral lessons. The speller was a clandestine tool of literacy, a skill forbidden to enslaved people because it threatened the institution of slavery. The episode explores why such a seemingly mundane object became so treasured and how it functioned as a path toward freedom.