Light was not white. For colonial Americans, purity was not about color. It was about essence. Jesus as light connoted power, goodness, and love. He was, literally and figuratively, the light of the world. The color white, moreover, was not an unambiguous emblem of purity. As a color in dreams, white was considered an evil omen. The Universal Dream-Dictionary of 1795 claimed that in dreams, white or pale skin connoted “a sign of trouble, poverty and death.” It was a “black face” that meant “long life.” According to Jonathan Edwards, white was not even God’s favorite color. “Green, being the
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