Even some of those involved in the slave trade were willing to admit that raciest views were wrong and that a person should not be judged on their colour. The profits however meant that despite this acknowledgement they often continued trading. This is the view of Captain Thomas Phillips:

I cannot imagine why they should be despised for their colour, being what they cannot help, and the effect of the climate God has given them. I can't think there is any basic value in one colour more than another, nor that white is better than black, only we think so because we are so.

Captain Thomas Phillips (a slave trader), A Voyage made in the Hannibal 1693-94 (published 1732)