Thirteen colonies declared independence together in 1776 and became the original United States.
The Thirteen Colonies were British settlements along the Atlantic coast of North America. They included New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
Their delegates formed the Second Continental Congress, which adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776. After the Revolutionary War, the thirteen states operated under the Articles of Confederation before the Constitution created the present federal system.
The number thirteen remained important in early national symbols. The first United States flag is traditionally associated with thirteen stripes and thirteen stars, representing the original states. Vermont, admitted in 1791, was the first state added after the original thirteen.