Thirteen Colonies

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Betsy Ross purportedly sewed the first American flag with 13 stars and 13 stripes representing each of the 13 colonies.

The Thirteen Colonies were 13 British colonies in North America, separately chartered and governed, that signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and formally broke with the Kingdom of Great Britain, leading to the American Revolutionary War and the establishment of the United States of America.

Other British North American possessions—the former French colony of Quebec and the colonies of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island—remained loyal to the British Crown and much later were united as Canada. The colonies of East Florida and West Florida also remained loyal during the American Revolution.

The Thirteen Colonies

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 and Providence Plantations
  • 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
• Southern Colonies:
  • Province of Maryland, later Maryland
  • Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia
  • Province of North Carolina, later North Carolina and Tennessee
  • Province of South Carolina, later South Carolina
  • Province of Georgia, later Georgia

Reference is sometimes seen to the Chesapeake Colonies, these being the Province of Maryland and the Colony and Dominion of Virginia; so called because they border the Chesapeake Bay.

Proprietary, royal, and charter colonies

• Proprietary Colonies: Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Proprietary means "of or relating to an owner or an ownership".
• Royal Colonies: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Royal colonies means "of a quality or size suitable for a King or queen".
• Charter colonies: Rhode Island and Connecticut. Charter means "a written grant by a country's legislative or sovereign power, by which an institution such as a company, college, or a city is created and its rights and privileges defined".

Other British colonies in North America and the Caribbean in 1776

Britain held several other colonies in North America and the Caribbean in 1776 which did not join the 13 in their American Revolution against the Crown.

Future Canadian provinces

• Nova Scotia (including present day New Brunswick)
• Newfoundland
• Prince Edward Island (before 1798, Île Saint-Jean or St. John's Island)
• Province of Quebec (including present day Ontario)

In 1775, the British claimed authority over both the red and pink areas on this map and Spain ruled the orange west of the Mississippi river. The red area is the area of the 13 colonies after the Proclamation of 1763. (Map produced by U.S. Dept. of Interior.)

Future American states

• East Florida
• West Florida

Future independent countries

• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Jamaica
• Nevis, as part of Saint Kitts and Nevis
• St. Christopher, now Saint Kitts

Future British overseas territories

• Bermuda
• Cayman Islands

Other

• West Indies

See also

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

External links

• British North American Colonies to 1783 - Military History & Institutions
• The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Colonial Charters, Grants and Related Documents