Thirteen colonies declared independence in the document celebrated by America250.
The Thirteen Colonies were British colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America. Their representatives gathered in the Second Continental Congress and adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The declaration spoke for the colonies collectively as the United States.
The colonies were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Their political cooperation did not mean they were identical; they had different economies, populations, laws, and local governments.
A frequent confusion concerns Vermont, which declared independence from New York in 1777 and became a U.S. state in 1791. It was not one of the original thirteen colonies represented in the 1776 Declaration.