Thirteen British North American colonies joined together in the American Declaration of Independence.
The colonies stretched along the Atlantic coast from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the south. Their economies, geography, religious traditions, and political institutions differed considerably, but disputes with Parliament and the British Crown increasingly encouraged cooperation during the 1760s and 1770s.
The thirteen colonies declared independence in 1776 and later formed the original states of the United States. They were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
A common mix-up is counting the colonies represented at every stage of the independence movement as though participation were identical. The Declaration referred to thirteen states, but voting and representation changed during the war. Vermont declared independence separately in 1777 and was admitted to the Union in 1791, making it the fourteenth state.