Davis is imprisoned at Fortress Monroe, Virginia for over two years--during which there is a public outcry over his treatment and the validity of jailing someone not yet accused of any crime. After his release, Davis begins what will be a cross-country and international search for meaningful employment so that he may provide a life for his family. When an old friend offers her home, Beauvoir, in Biloxi, Mississippi, to live and write in peace, Davis accepts. He later dies in December 1889 in New Orleans after a final trip to his beloved Mississippi plantation, Brierfield.