For America250, the 1776 Declaration of Independence represented thirteen American colonies declaring independence.
The document’s well-known opening and closing sections speak for the thirteen colonies that had been British colonies in North America. By the time of the Declaration, these colonies had formed the political coalition that became the United States during the Revolutionary War.
The thirteen were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They were not all identical in size, economy, or political culture, but they joined in the independence movement.
The number thirteen later became a major national symbol. The first U.S. flag resolution in 1777 specified thirteen alternating stripes and thirteen stars, representing the original states. A common mistake is to count later states: the United States eventually expanded far beyond the original thirteen, but the Declaration itself concerned the thirteen colonies that became the founding states.