Here’s About The Original 13 Unites States Colonies

•    In the 1500s, North America was still mainly an uncharted wilderness. The continent was still inhabited by Native Americans, despite a few Spanish colonists living in St. Augustine, Florida, and French traders maintaining outposts in Nova Scotia.

 

•    On Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, the English attempted to found a colony in North America in 1585. The colonists stayed for a whole year. They then returned home. In 1587, a second group made its appearance, but they inexplicably vanished.

 

•    Another group founded the Virginian colony of Jamestown in 1607. Despite facing significant challenges, the colony was successful. The English established a total of 13 colonies over the following century. 

 

•    They were North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. 

 

•    Nearly 2 million Europeans were residing in the American colonies by 1750. Others arrived from Africa, the majority of them being transported as slaves.

 

The majority of the populace in England was made up of farmers who rented tiny parcels of land from the few lords who did possess land. But eventually the landowners found that growing sheep was more lucrative than renting to farmers. Farmers were forced to leave their homes and had no other option but to come to America. 

 

Others arrived in the colonies looking for religious liberty. Every country in Europe had a state church that was required of all citizens to attend, such as the Anglican Church of England. People who rejected the state religion were occasionally imprisoned. Like the Puritan Pilgrims, religious rebels travelled to America to practice their own religion.

 

The first British colonies founded throughout the 17th and 18th centuries made up the first 13 states of the United States of America. While the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, founded in 1607, was the first English settlement in North America, the permanent 13 colonies were founded as follows: 

 

1.    Rhode Island Colony was established as a British colony in 1663 

 

2.    Connecticut Colony was established as a British colony in 1662 

 

3.    New Hampshire Province was established as a British colony in 1679 

 

4.    Massachusetts Bay Province was established as a British colony in 1692

 

1.    New York Province, established in 1686 as a British colony 

 

2.    New Jersey Province, established in 1702 as a British colony 

 

3.    Pennsylvania Province, established in 1681 as a proprietary colony 

 

4.    Delaware Colony (before 1776, the Lower Counties on the Delaware River), established in 1664 as a proprietary colony 

 

1.    Carolina Province, a proprietary colony founded in 1663

2.    Maryland Province, a proprietary colony founded in 1632 

3.    Virginia Dominion and Colony, a British colony founded in 1607

4.    Georgia Province, a British colony founded in 1732 and 

5.    The Divided Provinces of North and South Carolina, both authorized as British colonies in 1729.

 

The Articles of Confederation, which were approved on March 1, 1781, served as the legal foundation for the 13 states. The Articles established a loose confederation of independent nations that coexisted with a feeble central authority. The Articles of Confederation gave the states the majority of governmental authority, in contrast to the power-sharing "federalism" that exists today. 

 

Soon after, it was clear that a stronger national government was necessary, which eventually sparked the Constitutional Convention in 1787. On March 4, 1789, the Articles of Confederation were superseded by the Constitution of the United States.

 

The first 13 (chronological order) states recognized by the Articles of Confederation were:

1.    Delaware (ratified the Constitution on December 7, 1787) 

 

2.    Pennsylvania (ratified the Constitution on December 12, 1787) 

 

3.    New Jersey (ratified the Constitution on December 18, 1787)

 

4.    Georgia (ratified the Constitution on January 2, 1788) 

 

5.    Connecticut (ratified the Constitution on January 9, 1788) 

 

6.    Massachusetts (ratified the Constitution on February 6, 1788) 

 

7.    Maryland (ratified the Constitution on April 28, 1788) 

 

8.    South Carolina (ratified the Constitution on May 23, 1788)

 

9.    New Hampshire (ratified the Constitution on June 21, 1788)

 

10.    Virginia (ratified the Constitution on June 25, 1788) 

 

11.    New York (ratified the Constitution on July 26, 1788) 

 

12.    North Carolina (ratified the Constitution on November 21, 1789)

 

13.    Rhode Island (ratified the Constitution on May 29, 1790)

 

By 1790, Great Britain had sovereignty over colonies in the Caribbean, East and West Florida, the 13 North American colonies, and Canada.

 

According to Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which reads in part, "The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all necessary Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States," the procedure by which U.S. territories become full states today is largely at the discretion of Congress. 

 

•    Spanish colonists were among the first Europeans to arrive in the "New World," but by the 1600s, England had established itself as the preeminent power along the Atlantic coast of what would eventually become the United States.

 

•    In Virginia's Jamestown, the first English colony in America was established in 1607. Many of the settlers had travelled to the New World in order to avoid religious persecution or in an effort to prosper financially.

 

•    The Pilgrims, a group of persecuted religious dissidents from England, boarded the Mayflower in September of 1620 and sailed for the New World. In November 1620, they arrived off the coast of what is now Cape Cod, and they founded a settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 

 

•    Colonialists in Virginia and Massachusetts prospered with the well-publicized help of adjacent Indigenous communities after enduring significant initial struggles in adjusting to their new homes. 

 

•    They were sustained by ever-larger maize crops, but tobacco in Virginia was a profitable source of money.

 

•    By the early 1700s, enslaved Africans made up an increasing proportion of the population in the colonies.

 

•    More than 2 million people called Britain's 13 North American colonies home by 1770.

 

•    Enslaved Africans made up a rising portion of the colonial population by the early 1700s. The 13 North American colonies of Great Britain were home to almost 2 million people by 1770. 

 

The American colonists were extremely diligent and productive. Large tracts of cheaply available, agriculturally productive land promoted early marriage and big families. Most colonists were married in their teens because they needed partners and kids to keep up their farms, and households with ten or more people were more common than not.

 

Despite numerous challenges, the colonies' populations expanded quickly. Immigrants from throughout Europe, as well as from Great Britain itself, poured into the colonies, eager to settle in what they saw as a land of opportunity. Immigration was promoted by both the colonies and Great Britain, with English Protestants being especially welcomed. 

 

In its effort to populate the colonies, Great Britain also forcibly transported a large number of people, including political prisoners, debtors, and enslaved Africans, to America. The population of the original 13 American colonies quadrupled per generation for a significant portion of their history.

 

The American colonists were extremely devout Christians who thought that the Bible was God's Word and that they were expected to live their lives in accordance with its limitations, whether they were the Puritan pilgrims of Plymouth or the Anglicans of Jamestown. They were inspired to develop extra-biblical beliefs that fit the Christian worldview because of their sincere belief in the existence of an omnipotent deity, angels, and bad spirits. 

 

Native Americans were frequently associated by the colonists with evil, dangerous energies. Even Edward Winslow of Plymouth Colony, who promoted cordial connections with Native Americans, asserted that they worshipped the devil and had the power to cast spells, wither crops, harm or heal at pleasure. However, because other colonists possessed the ability to use this power, it was necessary to keep an eye out for any witchcraft.

 

Each colony required that its citizens adhere to rigid social rules. Any aspect of a person's life that seemed out of the ordinary was cause for suspicion, even in the liberal colonies of New York and Pennsylvania, which welcomed people of all nationalities and religions. The Massachusetts Salem Witch Trials of 1692–1693 are unquestionably the most well-known instance of this. 

 

During those trials, 185 colonists—mostly women—were suspected of witchcraft, 156 were legally charged, 47 made confessions, and 19 were hanged. Anyone from any social class could be suspected or accused of consulting with the devil to perform the "dark arts," however marginalized groups—primarily women—were the most frequently accused.

 

Prior to founding their Plymouth Colony, on November 11, 1620, the Pilgrims drafted the Mayflower Compact, a social contract in which they essentially vowed to rule themselves. The system of open town meetings that governed colonial administrations throughout New England echoed the significant example for self-government provided by the Mayflower Compact.

Although the 13 colonies had a high degree of autonomy, the British system of mercantilism made sure that the colonies' only purpose was to advance the mother country's economy.

 

A colonial governor who was chosen by and answerable to the British Crown oversaw each colony's limited government, which each colony was free to establish. The colonists freely choose their own government officials, with the exception of the British-appointed governor, who was tasked with enforcing the English "common law" system. 

 

Notably, the colonial governor and the British Crown had to evaluate and approve the majority of the choices made by the local colonial governments. A system that would worsen as the colonies expanded and prospered, becoming increasingly complicated and divisive.

 

By the 1750s, the colonies had begun negotiating agreements with one another on their economic interests, frequently without seeking the British Crown's approval. As a result, the colonies started to feel increasingly like Americans and demanded that the Crown defend their "Rights as Englishmen," particularly the right to "no taxation without representation."

 

The colonies' ongoing and intensifying grievances against the British government throughout King George III's reign would eventually lead to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the American Revolution, and ultimately the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

 

The thirteen founding colonies are represented by 13 horizontal red and white stripes that are prominently displayed on the American flag today.