13 colonies

The Thirteen Colonies were thirteen British colonies in North America, separately chartered and governed, that rebelled against the crown and signed a Declaration of Independence in 1776 to become independent sovereign states, thereby establishing the seed for the United States of America.

List

Contemporaneous documents almost always listed the colonies in geographical order, roughly from north to south, as follows (the division into three regions is a later construct of historians, though New England was always considered to be a distinct region):

• New England:
  • Province of New Hampshire, later New Hampshire
  • Province of Massachusetts Bay, later Massachusetts and Maine
  • Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, later Rhode Island
  • Connecticut Colony, later Connecticut
• Middle Colonies:
  • Province of New York, later New York and Vermont
  • Province of New Jersey, later New Jersey
  • Province of Pennsylvania, later Pennsylvania
  • Delaware Colony (before 1776, the Lower Counties on Delaware), later Delaware
• Cheasapeake Colonies (considered Southern Colonies in most texts):
  • Province of Maryland, later Maryland
  • Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia
• Southern Colonies:
  • Province of North Carolina, later North Carolina and Tennessee
  • Province of South Carolina, later South Carolina
  • Province of Georgia, later Georgia

Other colonies

Britain held several other colonies on mainland North America in 1776 which did not join the thirteen in their Revolution against the Crown.

Future Canadian provinces

• Nova Scotia (including present-day New Brunswick)
• Newfoundland
• St. John's Island (now called Prince Edward Island)
• the Province of Quebec, which included present day Quebec and Ontario

Future American states

• East Florida (forming most of today's Florida)
• West Florida (which now forms parts of the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida)

See also

• History of the United States (1776-1789): Independence and the American Revolution
• British colonization of the Americas
• Colonial America
• Colonial government in America

External links

• British North American Colonies to 1783 - Military History & Institutions
• The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Colonial Charters, Grants and Related Documents
• 13 Originals: Founding the American Colonies, a page that gives a brief history of all the colonies.