Thirteen Colonies


The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War, and joined to form the United States of America.
The Thirteen Colonies in their traditional groupings were: the New England Colonies ; the Middle Colonies ; and the Southern Colonies. These colonies were part of British America, which also included territory in The Floridas, the Caribbean, and what is today Canada.
The Thirteen Colonies were separately administered under the Crown, but had similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, and each was dominated by Protestant English-speakers. The first of the colonies, Virginia, was established at Jamestown in 1607. Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the New England Colonies were substantially motivated by their founders' concerns related to the practice of religion. The other colonies were founded for business and economic expansion. The Middle Colonies were established on the former Dutch colony of New Netherland.
Between 1625 and 1775, the colonial population grew from 2 thousand to 2.4 million, largely displacing the region's Native Americans. The population included people subject to a system of slavery, which was legal in all of the colonies. In the 18th century, the British government operated under a policy of mercantilism, in which the central government administered its colonies for Britain's economic benefit.
The 13 colonies had a degree of self-governance and active local elections, and they resisted London's demands for more control over them. The French and Indian War against France and its Indian allies led to growing tensions between Britain and the 13 colonies. During the 1750s, the colonies began collaborating instead of dealing directly with Britain. With the help of colonial printers and newspapers, these inter-colonial activities and concerns were shared and led to calls for protection of the colonists' "Rights as Englishmen", especially the principle of "no taxation without representation".
Late 18th century conflicts with the British government over taxes and rights led to the American Revolution, in which the Thirteen Colonies joined for the first time to form the Continental Congress and raised the Continental Army, declaring independence in 1776. They fought the Revolutionary War with the aid of the Kingdom of France and, to a much lesser degree, the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Spain.

British colonies

In 1606, King James I of England granted charters to both the Plymouth Company and the London Company for the purpose of establishing permanent settlements in America. The London Company established the Colony of Virginia in 1607, the first permanently settled English colony on the continent. The Plymouth Company founded the Popham Colony on the Kennebec River, but it was short-lived. The Plymouth Council for New England sponsored several colonization projects, culminating with Plymouth Colony in 1620 which was settled by English Puritan separatists, known today as the Pilgrims. The Dutch, Swedish, and French also established successful American colonies at roughly the same time as the English, but they eventually came under the English crown. The Thirteen Colonies were complete with the establishment of the Province of Georgia in 1732, although the term "Thirteen Colonies" became current only in the context of the American Revolution.
In London, beginning in 1660, all colonies were governed through a state department known as the Southern Department, and a committee of the Privy Council called the Board of Trade and Plantations. In 1768, a specific state department was created for America, but it was disbanded in 1782 when the Home Office took responsibility.

New England colonies

  1. Province of Massachusetts Bay, chartered as a royal colony in 1691
  2. * Popham Colony, established in 1607; abandoned in 1608
  3. * Plymouth Colony, established in 1620; merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691
  4. * Province of Maine, patent issued in 1622 by Council for New England; patent reissued by Charles I in 1639; absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony by 1658
  5. * Massachusetts Bay Colony, established in 1628; merged with Plymouth Colony in 1691
  6. Province of New Hampshire, established in 1629; merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1641; chartered as royal colony in 1679
  7. Connecticut Colony, established in 1636; chartered as royal colony in 1662
  8. * Saybrook Colony, established in 1635; merged with Connecticut Colony in 1644
  9. * New Haven Colony, established in 1638; merged with Connecticut Colony in 1664
  10. Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations chartered as royal colony in 1663
  11. * Providence Plantations, established by Roger Williams in 1636
  12. * Portsmouth, established in 1638 by John Clarke, William Coddington, and others
  13. * Newport, established in 1639 after a disagreement and split among the settlers in Portsmouth
  14. * Warwick, established in 1642 by Samuel Gorton
  15. * These four settlements merged into a single Royal colony in 1663
Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven Colonies formed the New England Confederation in 1643, and all New England colonies were included in the Dominion of New England.

Middle colonies


  1. Delaware Colony, established in 1664 as proprietary colony
  2. Province of New York, established as a proprietary colony in 1664; chartered as royal colony in 1686; included in the Dominion of New England
  3. Province of New Jersey, established as a proprietary colony in 1664; chartered as a royal colony in 1702
    • East Jersey, established in 1674; merged with West Jersey to re-form Province of New Jersey in 1702; included in the Dominion of New England
    • West Jersey, established in 1674; merged with East Jersey to re-form Province of New Jersey in 1702; included in the Dominion of New England
  4. Province of Pennsylvania, established in 1681 as a proprietary colony

Southern colonies


  1. Colony of Virginia, established in 1607 as a proprietary colony; chartered as a royal colony in 1624.
  2. Province of Maryland, established 1632 as a proprietary colony.
  3. Province of North Carolina, previously part of the Carolina province until 1712; chartered as a royal colony in 1729.
  4. Province of South Carolina, previously part of the Carolina province until 1712; chartered as a royal colony in 1729.
  5. Province of Georgia, established as a proprietary colony in 1732; royal colony from 1752.
The Province of Carolina was initially chartered in 1629, and initial settlements were established after 1651. That charter was voided in 1660 by Charles II, and a new charter was issued in 1663, making it a proprietary colony. The Carolina province was divided into separate proprietary colonies, north and south, in 1712, before both became royal colonies in 1729.
Earlier, along the coast, the Roanoke Colony was established in 1585, re-established in 1587, and found abandoned in 1590.

17th century

Southern colonies

The first British colony was Jamestown, established on May 14, 1607, near Chesapeake Bay. The business venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company, a joint-stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Indians, and little gold. The colony survived and flourished by turning to tobacco as a cash crop.
In 1632, King Charles I granted the charter for the Province of Maryland to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. Calvert's father had been a prominent Catholic official who encouraged Catholic immigration to the English colonies. The charter offered no guidelines on religion.
The Province of Carolina was the second attempted English settlement south of Virginia, the first being the failed attempt at Roanoke. It was a private venture, financed by a group of English Lords Proprietors who obtained a Royal Charter to the Carolinas in 1663, hoping that a new colony in the south would become profitable like Jamestown. Carolina was not settled until 1670, and even then, the first attempt failed because there was no incentive for emigration to that area. Eventually, however, the Lords combined their remaining capital and financed a settlement mission to the area led by Sir John Colleton. The expedition located fertile and defensible ground at Charleston, originally Charles Town for Charles II of England.

Middle colonies

Beginning in 1609, Dutch traders established fur trading posts on the Hudson River, Delaware River, and Connecticut River, seeking to protect their interests in the fur trade. The Dutch West India Company established permanent settlements on the Hudson River, creating the Dutch colony of New Netherland.
In 1626, Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape Indians and established the outpost of New Amsterdam. Relatively few Dutch settled in New Netherland, but the colony came to dominate the regional fur trade. It also served as the base for extensive trade with the English colonies, and many products from New England and Virginia were carried to Europe on Dutch ships. The Dutch also engaged in the burgeoning Atlantic slave trade, bringing some enslaved Africans to the English colonies in North America, although many more were sent to Barbados and Brazil. The West India Company desired to grow New Netherland as it became commercially successful, yet the colony failed to attract the same level of settlement as the English colonies did. Many of those who did immigrate to the colony were English, German, Walloon, or Sephardim.
In 1638, Sweden established the colony of New Sweden in the Delaware Valley. The operation was led by former members of the Dutch West India Company, including Peter Minuit. New Sweden established extensive trading contacts with English colonies to the south and shipped much of the tobacco produced in Virginia. The colony was conquered by the Dutch in 1655, while Sweden was engaged in the Second Northern War.
Beginning in the 1650s, the English and Dutch engaged in a series of wars, and the English sought to conquer New Netherland. Richard Nicolls captured the lightly defended New Amsterdam in 1664, and his subordinates quickly captured the remainder of New Netherland. The 1667 Treaty of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and confirmed English control of the region. The Dutch briefly regained control of parts of New Netherland in the Third Anglo-Dutch War but surrendered claim to the territory in the 1674 Treaty of Westminster, ending the Dutch colonial presence in America.
The British renamed the colony of New Amsterdam to "York City" or "New York". Large numbers of Dutch remained in the colony, dominating the rural areas between Manhattan and Albany, while people from New England started moving in, as well as immigrants from Germany. New York City attracted a large polyglot population, including a large black slave population. In 1674, the proprietary colonies of East Jersey and West Jersey were created from lands formerly part of New York.
Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 as a proprietary colony of Quaker William Penn. The main population elements included the Quaker population based in Philadelphia, a Scotch-Irish population on the Western frontier, and numerous German colonies in between. Philadelphia became the largest city in the colonies with its central location, excellent port, and a population of about 30,000.