[474] The next year, Washington stated his intention not to separate enslaved families as a result of "a change of masters".[475] During the 1780s, Washington privately expressed his support for the gradual emancipation of slaves.[476] Between 1783 and 1786, he gave moral support to a plan proposed by Lafayette to purchase land and free slaves to work on it, but declined to participate in the experiment.[459] Washington privately expressed support for emancipation to prominent Methodists Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury in 1785 but declined to sign their petition.[477] In personal correspondence the next year, he made clear his desire to see the institution of slavery ended by a gradual legislative process, a view that correlated with the mainstream antislavery literature published in the 1780s that Washington possessed.[478] He significantly reduced his purchases of slaves after the war but continued to acquire them in small numbers.[479]
In 1788, Washington declined a suggestion from a leading French abolitionist, Jacques Brissot, to establish an abolitionist society in Virginia, stating that although he supported the idea, the time was not yet right to confront the issue.