I read your comment a few days ago, and it's stuck with me. While I agree with some of the comments already posted about how Jefferson's acts are likely beyond anything shameful any of us have done, your general sentiment with cancel culture is one I very much agree with.

Note, I'm now talking about modern day cancel culture about those who are alive and not so much the specific Jefferson situation.

"There currently no room for growth for the living in this culture."

I like this line you wrote a lot. When a person is cancelled today, they're tossed to the garbage, left to either rot or figure out their growth on their own. I could certainly imagine an idealized version of our culture where when a person is called out on their past infractions, their community comes together to re-educate this person, to help them dissect any childhood experiences or traumas that would have shaped them to be a person who's behavior would result in the harming of others. Either this or some sort of center where a person could go to learn. The premise of these ideas is essentially that any group/culture/society is only as strong as its weakest link, so why not focus repertory energy on those in need of the most assistance?

Often when a person is cancelled, it's done so in a public way in which the person being cancelled doesn't have the ability to offer their perspective, or even to apologize/address all those that are now aware of a person's past mistakes. I was recently talking with a friend about this, she is a self identified Christian and practices her faith. She proposed a theory that cancel culture could be exacerbated by the decline of Christianity. She was saying that Christianity places a strong importance on forgiveness, and as the decline of this tradition increases in the US, more people get cancelled. I'm aware this talking point brings up a whole separate can of worms (let it be known I do not identify as Christian and broke ties with those grows after growing up in a Souther Baptist church) but the main point here is that people are finding it easier to extend an accusatory finger instead of a helping hand.