The Real Life “Witch” Who Inspired The Handmaid’s Tale

And why Atwood dedicated the book to her

All night, she hung in that tree. A lynching, plain and clear. At least it would have been, if she’d died. But she didn’t.

They’d grabbed her, those young men, tying her hands as she screamed and fought. Forced the noose over her head and hung her in the tree.

And then they left. Left her to hang there, hour after hour, as the sky got dark and then light again and I can’t help but wonder what she was thinking all those long hours.

Margaret Atwood wondered the same thing.

But wait, let me start at the beginning.

Wives wanted for prosperous men!

Women were rare in the early days of the colonies. At the best of times, there were twice as many men as women. That’s why they started running ads back in England. Wives wanted for the prosperous men of the new world.

That’s how Mary Reeve and her parents ended in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1670. She was over 40 and not married.

Likely, it was her father’s decision.

Thomas Reeve, her father, knew he wasn’t going to live forever. Someone needed to provide for his spinster daughter. Likely, he…