That's one of the things I appreciate about Hambly's Benjamin January novels - she doesn't do that. I mean, in addition to the main protagonists being people of colour, some sympathetic, some less so, all rounded characters with flaws and virtues, quirks and foibles. There are some white characters who are anti-slavery in that setting, but the majority isn't, and yes, there are sympathetic white characters who still don't believe in equality between the races and the sexes etc. (For example, in one novel our main character encounters Edgar Allen Poe, who historically was a southerner who wasn't pro Abolition, and Hambly doesn't try to change that, but her take on Poe in general is still sympathetic.) Not least due to the main character being a former slave, it still doesn't feel at any point as if Hambly is prettifying slavery or racism.