Attributes such as literacy and ability to swim are randomly generated, providing the player with different experiences during each playthrough. Players choose one of two characters (male or female). Though MECC offered to make changes to alleviate these concerns, the company ultimately pulled the game from sale. This led to numerous parents complaining to MECC and their schools about the racially offensive nature of the game, and threatening to sue MECC. The game was meant to be used in a school curriculum when it was released in late 1992, but most schools simply released the game to students to play without prior lessons. It is recognized as one of the first video games dealing with the topic of slavery.

The game was developed with help of an African-American consultant who guided MECC on appropriate graphics and dialect that represented the era. Based on similar gameplay from MECC's earlier The Oregon Trail, the player assumes the role of a runaway slave in the antebellum period of American history who is trying to reach the North through the Underground Railroad. Freedom! is a 1993 educational computer game developed and published by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC).