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out money, & it is the very kind of property that requires a large outlay before any profit can be realized.’’ Everyone knew, moreover, that, in the end, profit ‘‘will depend upon fashion & prejudice.’’31 Neither Charles Carter nor Robert E. Lee became springs proprietors. Running a resort for elite visitors was quite an undertaking. It proved a competitive business that required large sums of money and hard work, but making it profitable still depended upon the caprice of fashion and nature. The resorts constituted considerable enterprises, diversified and staffed with both white employees and black slaves. The larger resorts, especially White Sulphur Springs, were among the biggest employers in the South during the first half of the nineteenth century. Without the labor of proprietors, managers, and slave servants behind the scenes, the resorts simply could not have functioned.  ‘‘Bribe High and You Live High’’ While visitors considered the resorts beautiful or magical, their beauty often failed to offset the poor living. In spite of the glowing descriptions in advertisements, most resorts fell short of their promises of great comfort. As soon as travelers began to expect more than rudimentary accommodations at the Virginia Springs, complaints about the bed, board, and staff began. In 1818 John H. Cocke believed the ‘‘present State’’ of conditions at a few resorts ‘‘must be shocking to that refined female delicacy.’’ He vowed ‘‘nothing shou’d induce me to bring a female friend to them but direful necessity.’’ The tone of the comments remained the same for the next four decades, even after more resorts opened and the competition for visitors increased. Louisianna Cocke echoed the sentiments of hundreds of other springs guests when she proclaimed: ‘‘Oh! this is the dirtiest place I believe in the world, and nothing comfortable about it. The fare is indifferent but we could put up with it better if we knew it was clean.’’ But guests did ‘‘put up’’ with uncaring proprietors, rude managers, crowded or dirty rooms, bad food, and the occasional surly servant. They willingly but grudgingly exchanged an accustomed level of comfort at their homes for health and fashion at the resorts.1 A complex relationship took shape between the visitors and the proprietors and their workers in the peculiar labor environment of the springs. Guests relied upon a resort staff made up mostly of people from the low49 t h e s c e n e est ranks of southern society for whatever comfort could be had. Trying to gain entrance into an overcrowded spa and to secure good care while there forced elite whites to negotiate, even beg, favors from those considered beneath them in the social hierarchy. If a planter man or woman could not reach agreement with a proprietor or manager, the only option was to leave the resort. Most visitors acknowledged the presence of servants only in occasional but often vital situations. If visitors ignored or mistreated a slave servant at a crucial moment, they went hungry or slept in filth. Planter men and women always had to negotiate with slaves for their comfort and convenience—and for the comforting illusion of being in control. At the springs, however, elite visitors had to undertake these negotiations with slaves and whites from the lower orders in front of their peers in a competitive environment, not in the safety of their home plantations. Proprietors and their staffs, in a more or less subtle fashion, judged each visitor’s claims to high status and enforced the distinctions between them. By evaluating these claims, a resort’s staff helped to establish the hierarchy of spa society—a process that had ramifications for the rest of southern society. Guests ranked resorts, judging which possessed the best or worst accommodations , food, servants, and society. Visitors rarely reached final agreement on these matters, but some resorts consistently stood out in certain categories. Over the first half of the nineteenth century, spring-goers considered Salt Sulphur Springs superior in every way, except in fashionable society and mineral waters, to White Sulphur. In addition to Salt Sulphur , other springs, such as Blue Sulphur, Red Sweet, Warm, and Fauquier White Sulphur, became known as resorts of reliable comfort and a pleasant stay. Red Sulphur and Hot Springs became the favorite spas for those in search of health, while White Sulphur, Fauquier White Sulphur, Rockbridge Alum, and Sweet Springs earned reputations as fashionable and funfilled resorts. Not surprisingly, the few resorts that did have good food, polite servants, or comfortable accommodations earned loyal guests who...

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