The National Homelands

The National Homelands was a policy of forced relocation implemented by Gilead, most notoriously in North Dakota, where populations were crowded like sheep into fenced-in ghost towns with no food and water. Thousands died as a result of starvation and exposure, and survivors risked their lives walking north to the Canadian border in winter, suffering frostbite and other injuries. The policy became a major embarrassment for Commander Judd, who had championed it, as international human rights organizations levied genocide charges against Gilead. The flow of refugee Homelanders across the Canadian border became an unstoppable flood, and Judd's subsequent Certificate of Whiteness scheme collapsed in a welter of forgeries and bribery. The launch of the Pearl Girls initiative by Aunt Lydia saved Judd's political position at a crucial moment, though she later wondered whether it was politic to have done so. Captain Mishimengo, who helped smuggle Agnes and Nicole out of Gilead, was himself an escapee from the National Homelands who had crossed the Canadian border, and he feared that if captured by Gilead he would be claimed as a citizen and put on trial as a smuggler, which would be the end of him.