The WASPs - The Hanscome Trilogy Book III
BIOGRAPHICAL DRAMA EPIC FAMILY MEMOIR HISTORICAL FICTION ROMANCE OTHER POLITICAL
20th Century (multiple decades),2000s,Contemporary,Across Centuries,19th Century
Dr. Joan Adsit Dickinson
Logline
Ambitious and loving matriarch Rhoda ruthlessly denies her wealthy, slave-owning mulatto heritage and skillfully leads her family up twentieth-century Minneapolis’s privileged social ladder, only to be thwarted in her quest for white perfection.
Genre
Biographical,Drama,Epic,Family,Memoir,Historical Fiction,Romance,Other,Political
Short Summary
The affluent, now white, Toronto Hanscomes hide the pregnancy of their daughter by her true South Carolina love, the white inheritor of their old family plantation, who could not marry her due to miscegenation laws, and claim the boy as their own. Another family secret is born.
Matriarch Rhoda adores her new bi-racial great-granddaughter but takes her secret mulatto lineage to her grave, or so she thinks. A Maine whistleblower Hanscom eagerly shares his genealogical discoveries with the next horrified generation, who also hides the truth. However, in 2013 all is revealed.
Setting
Toronto, Minneapolis
Based on a True Story
Yes
Plot - Premise
Quest,Other,Rags to Riches,Internal Journey/Rebirth
Plot - Other Elements
Meaningful Message,Philosophical Questions,Twist,Coming of Age,Other
Mature Audience Themes
Information not completed
Main Character Details
Name: Rhoda Hanscome Campbell
Age: lifespan 1886-1982
Gender: Female
Role: Protagonist
Key Traits: Aspiring,Charming,Complex,Confident,Decisive,Empathetic,Engaging,Gracious,Greedy,Educated,Honorable,Leader,Outspoken,Skillful,Secretive,Sophisticated,Unapologetic,Strong Moral Code,Aggressive
Additional Character Details
Name: William Kissick Hanscome
Age: lifetime 1856-1945
Gender: Male
Role: Protagonist
Key Traits: Complex,Empathetic,Engaging,Faithful,Gracious,Educated,Insecure,Modest,Masculine,Charming
Additional Character Details
Name: Rhoda Baldwin Hanscome
Age: Adult 1880s - 1918
Gender: Female
Role: logical
Key Traits: Aspiring,Aggressive,Complex,Confident,Decisive,Educated,Engaging,Leader,Blunt,Unapologetic,Outspoken,Romantic
Additional Character Details
The author has not yet written this
Development Pitch
The WASPs exposes the roots of racism and white privilege in Minneapolis via the true Hanscome family saga. Envision The WASPs as a consciousness-raising film, allowing even the most liberal among us to confront our own unknown and admitted prejudices, absorbed like osmosis through our culture and those subtly taught by our families, that make us feel morally right, better than others and is the fertile foundation for racism. Envision the 1949 South Pacific tune "You've got to be Carefully Taught" as the theme song. Envision flashbacks that rawly expose progressive Minneapolis, aflame with the murder of George Floyd and the underbelly of its "Minnesota nice" persona. Tell the strong woman theme through the first two generations of practical, calculating, yet loving Rhodas, feminists before their time, the third and fourth generations Rhoda's romantic quests for true love - the purpose of their lives, male dominance, and the rebirth of feminism. Tell the tale of denial of black heritage and the assimilation at the cost of diversity of the 20th century. Show their hopes, fears, laughter and obsessions in the pursuit of success. Or tell the whole 400-year rich history of the Hanscomes in a three-season series - the 1629 Salem "have-not" indentured servants, the 1700-1800s affluent "have" black and white slave owners in South Carolina, the 1850-1900s passing for white trials to attain prosperity, and the role of migrations.in their survival. Above all show the love of family.