Thirteen colonies declared independence from Great Britain in the 1776 event commemorated by America250.
The thirteen colonies occupied Britain’s mainland possessions along the Atlantic coast of North America. Their delegates met in the Second Continental Congress and approved the Declaration of Independence. The document described the colonies collectively as free and independent states.
The colonies were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They were not yet the same as the modern 50-state United States; westward expansion and later admissions added many more states.
The number thirteen also appears in early national symbols, including the original flag’s thirteen stars and stripes. Those symbols represent the founding colonies, while later flags added stars for new states but retained thirteen stripes. America250 looks back to this thirteen-colony declaration as the starting point for the nation’s 250-year story.