The Declaration of Independence represented thirteen British colonies in America’s founding story.
These colonies occupied the Atlantic seaboard and had developed separate governments and communities under British rule. In 1776, their delegates met in the Second Continental Congress and declared that the colonies were free and independent states.
The thirteen were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Their names and order are often remembered through historical lists, although the document itself used a formal political context rather than a modern state-by-state format.
A common mix-up is confusing the thirteen colonies with the number of states in the United States today. The United States began with thirteen former colonies, but the Union later expanded to 50 states. America250 commemorates the declaration made by those original thirteen colonies while also reflecting on the country’s later development.