Thirteen colonies declared independence through the 1776 Declaration of Independence.
The colonies were British possessions along the Atlantic coast of North America. Their delegates met in the Second Continental Congress and ultimately declared that the colonies were free and independent states. The declaration’s formal title refers to “the unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.”
The thirteen were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They differed greatly in geography, economy, population, and political structure, but their delegates joined in the independence movement.
The number can be confused with the later number of states in the expanding United States. Vermont became the fourteenth state in 1791, after the Revolutionary era. The thirteen stripes on the United States flag continue to symbolize the original colonies, while the stars represent the states in the Union.