Northup always wants to go home to his family in New York. Because he is legally a free man, his friends from New York can come and bring him home. Northup must find a way to tell them where he is. Northup tries to steal paper and in so he can write a letter to his family in New York. But he cannot go to the post office to send a letter himself. He needs a white person to send the letter for him. The first man he asks tells Epps, and Northup barely manages to talk his way out of trouble. After some years, Northup finds a Canadian man who will send the letters for him. The Canadian does so.