The Declaration of Independence represented thirteen colonies when it was adopted in 1776, the founding milestone commemorated by America250. These colonies occupied Britain’s mainland possessions along the Atlantic coast of North America.
The thirteen were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Their delegates formed the Continental Congress and acted together in declaring independence.
The thirteen colonies should not be confused with the fifty states of the modern United States or with the original thirteen states after independence. The colonies became states through the Revolutionary settlement and the creation of the new nation, but the Declaration itself names the colonial political units of 1776.