Plot

An idealistic young man returns to the plantation where he grew up in servitude. He brings his fiancée Lutiebelle, but hopes to convince the plantation owner that she is really his cousin to secure the family inheritance. Aiding the comic complications are his family members Missy and Gitlow and the plantation owner's endearing but ineffectual son Charlie.—Jonathan Ruskin <JonRuskin@aol.com>

After a long absence, Purlie Victorious Judson, a self-ordained preacher, returns to his hometown of Cotchipee, Georgia. He is accompanied by his disciple, Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, a kitchen maid who figures in his scheme for buying an old barn and converting it into an integrated church. In order to raise the money needed to purchase the barn, Purlie persuades Lutiebelle to pose as his cousin Bea, who is actually deceased, to collect $500 which crusty old Captain Cotchipee, owner of the local cotton plantation, is holding in trust. Purlie and Lutiebelle share the home of Purlie's sister, Missy, and his "Uncle Tom" brother-in-law, Gitlow, who takes pride in his new position as Deputy for the Colored on the plantation. Purlie's fund-raising plan nearly succeeds, but Lutiebelle accidentally reveals her true identity to Captain Cotchipee. Determined to have his church, Purlie enlists the aid of the captain's son, Charlie, and the $500 is removed from the old man's safe. Purlie pretends to his friends that he forcibly took the money after beating the captain with his own whip, but his triumph is short-lived; Captain Cotchipee arrives on the scene and announces that he has purchased the old barn himself and plans to burn it to the ground. However, he has reckoned without Charlie, who announces that he made the purchase of the deed in Purlie's name. The news is too much for the captain, and he dies--standing upright--of a stroke. Purlie gets his church, and his first service is an integrated funeral for Captain Cotchipee.