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Go to /decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Your support is also crucial to our work. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring without any ads and have total access to Slate’s website. If you’re a fan of the show, please sign up for Slate Plus. If you haven’t please yet, subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks also to Coventry Cowens, Brigitte Fielder, Bob Whitaker, Alan Whisman, Wayne Studer, Alicia Montgomery, Rebecca Onion, Luke Winkie, and Kamau Kambui’s children: Yamro Kambui Fields, Halim Fields, Mawusi Kambui Pierre, Nanyamka Salley, and Kamau Sababu Kambui Jr. Thank you to Jesse Fuchs for suggesting this topic. His New Yorker article, “ Can Slavery Reenactments Set Us Free?,” revisits the Freedom! story as part of an exploration of the live Underground Railroad re-enactments that Kamau Kambui pioneered. We’re grateful to Julian Lucas for his expertise, reporting, and generosity, without which this episode would not have been possible. Joel Meyer is senior editor-producer and Merritt Jacob is senior technical director. The dynamic ads can be different for any user listening to the podcast and can be in a different language based on their account settings or current location. Podcast hosts have the option to choose if they would like to have a dynamic ad slot in their podcast. This episode was also produced by Benjamin Frisch, and edited by Erica Morrison. Well be happy to share more information on the matter. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. This episode was written by Willa Paskin.

In this episode, we revisit this well-intentioned, but flawed foray into historical trauma that serves as a reminder that teaching Black history in America has always been fraught. Less than four months later, it was pulled from the market.

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Freedom! took kids on a journey along the Underground Railroad, becoming the first American software program to use slavery as its subject matter. In 1992, a Minnesota-based software company known for its educational hit The Oregon Trail released another simulation-style game to school districts across the country.

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