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.

Attributes such as literacy and ability to swim are randomly generated, providing the player with different experiences during each playthrough.

[2] MECC had previously developed a graphical version of The Oregon Trail in 1985 as part of its educational software library, and had developed a number of similar games based on the same themes involving similar historical treks, such as The Yukon Trail based on the Klondike Gold Rush.

came from a local Minnesota activist, Kamau Kambui, who had begun organizing live Underground Railroad reenactments in the late 1980s to show young people what the slaves at the time had to suffer to make their escape to freedom.

was released in late 1992 with instructions for use in a classroom setting, with the expectation that the teacher would first guide students on certain lessons before letting them play the game; because of the cultural nature of the title, the manual had included numerous cautions to teachers to avoid perpetuating racial biases, but the game was most often used by students without any curriculum set by the school.

While the parents did acknowledge that the Merrillville schools lacked the curriculum to support the game, they were still concerned about the subject matter of Freedom!.

[3][7] Despite this, a suit was filed against MECC in 1995 by parents in the Tempe, Arizona school system which had failed to destroy their copy.

[3] In 2020, screenshots from the game were jokingly posted on the unmoderated Internet forum AutoAdmit by a user who was later identified as Tucker Carlson's top writer, Blake Neff.