User:MrWeeble/Thirteen Colonies



The Thirteen Colonies is a name given to those colonies of the Kingdom of Great Britain in North America that declared their independence as the United States of America on July 4, 1776.

It should be noted that the name "Thirteen colonies" is only applied in retrospect as the defining event of the Thirteen Colonies was their Declaration of Independence from the British Crown, at which point they ceased to be colonies. They refered to themselves at this time as the "United Colonies", as members of the Second Continental Congress.

The Colonies
Contemporaneous documents tended to list the colonies of British North America (of which there were 20 at the time of the rebellion) in geographical order, roughly from north to south. The thirteen colonies were listed as follows (the division into three regions is largely 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
 * Southern Colonies (depending on the subject under discussion, Virginia and Maryland may be separated as Chesapeake 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

Other divisions prior to 1730

 * Dominion of New England -  Created by King James II with the consolidation of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, East Jersey, and West Jersey into a single "super colony" in 1685.  The experiment was discontined with the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, and the nine former colonies re-established their separate identies in 1689.
 * Maine -  Settled in 1622. (An earlier attempt to settle the Popham Colony on Sagadahoc Island, Maine in 1607 was abandoned after only one year.)  Massachusetts Bay colony encroached into Maine during the English Civil War, but, with the Restoration, autonomy was returned to Maine in 1664.  Maine was officially merged into Massachusetts Bay Colony with the issuance of the Massachusetts Bay charter of 1691.
 * Plymouth Colony -  Settled in 1620 by the Pilgrims.  Plymouth was absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony with the issuance of the Massachusetts Bay charter of 1691.
 * New Haven - Settled in late 1637. New Haven was absorbed by Connecticut Colony with the issuance of the Connecticut Charter in 1662.
 * East Jersey -  New Jersey was divided into two separate colonies in 1674.  The Jerseys were reunited in 1702.
 * West Jersey -  New Jersey was divided into two separate colonies in 1674.  The Jerseys were reunited in 1702.
 * Province of Carolina -  Founded in 1663.  Carolina colony was divided into North Carolina and South Carolina in 1712.  (Both colonies became royal colonies in 1729.)