After being enslaved for 12 years, Northup is restored to freedom and returned to his family. As he walks into his home, he sees his wife with their son and daughter and her husband, who present him with his grandson and namesake, Solomon Northup Staunton. The film's epilogue displays a series of graphics recounting Northup's unsuccessful suits against Brown, Hamilton and Burch, the 1853 publication of Northup's slave narrative memoir, Twelve Years a Slave, his role in the abolitionist movement, and the mystery surrounding details of his death and burial.