Thirteen colonies were represented when the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776, the milestone commemorated by America250.
The colonies stretched along the Atlantic coast of North America, from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the south. Their delegates met in the Second Continental Congress and acted together against British rule.
The thirteen colonies became the first thirteen states of the United States. Their names were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
A common mistake is to count later states or assume the original United States already had its modern boundaries. The 1776 declaration represented thirteen British colonies, not fifty states. The United States expanded dramatically after independence through state admissions, territorial purchases, treaties, and annexations.