While I personally believe that you have to understand historical figures in the context of the time and society they lived in and not judge them by modern societal rules (even if these are improvements), I think we are seeing an increase in judging historical figures. For example, in terms of American Founding Fathers, John Adams is rising in estimation and Thomas Jefferson is falling. Obviously a large part in this is that Adams didn't own slaves.
Historical works to a point. There were people who obviously knew that slavery was bad back then. It's more controversial to think that everyone thought it was OK.
