National Homeland One

National Homeland One is the designated territory in North Dakota to which the Gilead regime forcibly relocates the "Children of Ham"—its racialized classification for Black citizens—as part of a state-engineered ethnic cleansing program. The policy is announced on state television as "resettlement continuing on schedule," with thousands transported weekly, but no images of the process are shown, and the fate of those sent there remains deliberately opaque. The program reveals the regime's systematic use of racial expulsion as a tool of social engineering, and its silence about conditions in the territory underscores the erasure of those deemed outside the national project.

Official Announcement and Concealment

The existence of National Homeland One is first revealed to Offred through the evening news, which she is permitted to watch during the Ceremony evenings in the Commander's sitting room. The television anchorman, described as having a "kindly, fatherly" manner and a "reassuring pink face," announces that "Resettlement of the Children of Ham is continuing on schedule," stating that "three thousand have arrived this week in National Homeland One, with another two thousand in transit." The broadcast provides no images of the transportation or the destination itself—no trains, buses, or camps are shown. The absence of visual evidence, combined with the anchorman's soothing tone, creates a deliberate informational vacuum. Offred reflects on the logistics, wondering "how they are transporting that many people at once," but the regime offers no answer. The only speculation she can muster is that the relocated people are expected to "farm, is the theory." The vagueness of the announcement, paired with the lack of any corroborating footage, makes the entire operation feel abstract and unverifiable, a piece of propaganda rather than a report.

Racial Ideology and the "Children of Ham"

The designation "Children of Ham" is a theological and racial label that the Gilead regime uses to justify the expulsion of Black citizens. The term draws on the biblical "Curse of Ham" narrative, which was historically employed to legitimize the enslavement of African peoples. By invoking this framework, Gilead casts the forced relocation not as persecution but as a divinely sanctioned separation of peoples. The regime's broader racial policies are further illustrated by its treatment of Jewish citizens, who are given a "choice" to convert or emigrate to Israel—a choice that, in practice, is often coerced. Ofglen reports that some non-Jewish people attempted to escape Gilead by "pretending to be Jewish," but that the regime "tightened up on that now," suggesting that the emigration routes were monitored and restricted. The "Children of Ham" policy, however, offers no such choice: it is a one-way expulsion, with no pretense of voluntariness. The regime's television coverage of the resettlement is sanitized and triumphant, showing only the numbers and the schedule, never the human cost.

Narrative Significance and Thematic Resonance

National Homeland One functions in the novel as a symbol of the regime's total control over information and its willingness to erase entire populations from public view. The policy is announced in the same breathless, upbeat tone as military victories and economic statistics, blending atrocity into the fabric of normalcy. Offred's inability to learn anything concrete about the territory—its conditions, its governance, the fate of those sent there—mirrors the broader informational blackout that defines life in Gilead. The territory is a void in the official narrative, a place where inconvenient people disappear without a trace. This silence is itself a form of violence, as it denies the displaced any recognition or memory. The policy also reveals the intersection of racial and reproductive control in Gilead: while the regime obsessively manages the fertility of white women, it simultaneously expels Black citizens from the national territory, treating their presence as incompatible with the new order. National Homeland One is thus not merely a relocation zone but a foundational element of Gilead's racial state, a place where the regime's ideology of purity is enacted through geographic exclusion.