Sure, give whatever historical context you like. To me, a woman, that he was a rapist is highly notable. Women have been calling out rapist men, because they tend to be Bad Guys in general who have certain beliefs that are Bad (which is what enables them to rape). What Jefferson did with his slave is like a horror movie. It’s genuinely disturbing to think about. Would you like to be some 40 year old guy’s fuck meat at age 15? How about at the age you are now?
It’s like if people started talking about R Kelly’s music - and I’m like hey, for context, many of these girls he’s talking about were child victims - it changes his music. Thomas Jefferson factually did those things and it should be part of his history when we talk about his philosophies and morals.
I would wholeheartedly agree with you if that was little-known, but — and I admit, I’m guessing here — I’d be very surprised if most people on Lemmy don’t know he was a slaveowner and a rapist. This place is basically a commune of nerds with strong left-wing political opinions. I really don’t think we need to preface things that everyone here already knows are bad. We’re also talking about slavery, but don’t feel the need to point out that actually, slavery is really not great (something that might be important to remind others of on, say, Twitter).