Thirteen colonies joined together in the United States’ founding story commemorated by America250.
The Thirteen Colonies were British colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America. From north to south, they were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
These colonies declared independence from Great Britain in 1776 and formed the original political basis of the United States. Their populations, economies, geography, and political institutions differed considerably, but representatives met in the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary era. The colonies later became the first states in the new union.
The phrase “Thirteen Colonies” refers specifically to the British colonies that became the original United States, not every European settlement in North America. Vermont was not one of the thirteen colonies, and it joined the Union later as the fourteenth state in 1791.