For America's 250th anniversary, thirteen British colonies joined in declaring independence in 1776.
The colonies were British settlements along North America's Atlantic coast. Their delegates gathered in the Second Continental Congress, which adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The document announced that the colonies were no longer politically subordinate to Great Britain.
The thirteen colonies were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They later became the first states of the United States.
A common mix-up is confusing the thirteen colonies with the thirteen original states. The terms overlap historically, but the colonies existed before independence, while “states” describes their status after the United States was established. Vermont was not one of the thirteen colonies; it joined the Union separately in 1791.