Thirteen colonies formed the original United States represented in America250’s founding story.
These British North American colonies declared independence in 1776 and became the first states of the new United States. They stretched along the Atlantic coast from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the south.
The colonies were not identical. Their economies, religious traditions, settlement patterns, and political institutions differed considerably. New England colonies included Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire; the Middle Colonies included New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware; and the Southern Colonies included Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
The phrase “13 colonies” refers to the British colonies that formed the original union, not to every British settlement in North America. Canada, Florida, and other neighboring regions followed different political paths during the revolutionary period.