As the anti-slave trade movement reached its climax, the planters were keen to be seen in a good light and that they could regulate the trade themselves. John Pinney was a Bristol plantation owner. He wrote this letter to his manager when a friend of Wilberforce visited the Pinney plantations:
Do not allow a negro to be corrected in his presence, or so near for him to hear the whip... Point out the comforts the negroes enjoy beyond the poor in this country, drawing a comparison between the climates - show him the property they possess in goats, hogs, and poultry, and their negro-ground. By this means he will leave the island possessed with favourable sentiments.
Letter, John Pinney to his plantation manager on Nevis c.1805