Thirteen Colonies

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

The Thirteen Colonies were British colonies in North America which rebelled against British rule in 1775. A provisional government was formed which proclaimed their independence on July 4, 1776, and subsequently became the original thirteen United States. The colonies were founded between 1607 (Virginia), and 1733 (Georgia), although Great Britain held several other colonies in North America and the West Indies.

Colonies

Contemporaneous documents usually list the thirteen revolutionary colonies of British North America in geographical order, from north to south.

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 named to 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 the 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 Colony, Plymouth Colony, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Province of New York, East Jersey, and West Jersey into a single larger colony in 1685. The experiment was discontinued with the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, and the nine former colonies re-established their separate identities in 1689. Province of 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, partly as royal punishment by King Charles II for harboring the regicide judges who sentenced King Charles I to death. East and 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.

Population

(Note: the population figures do not account for the native tribes who originally resided here)

Year	Population
1625	1,980
1641	50,000
1688	200,000
1702	270,000
1715	434,600
1749	1,046,000
1754	1,485,634
1765	2,240,000
1775	2,418,000

Notes

References

Cooke, Jacob Ernest et al., ed. Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies. Scribner's, 1993. 3 vol; 2397 pp.
Gipson, Lawrence. The British Empire Before the American Revolution (15 volumes) (1936-1970), Pulitzer Prize; highly detailed discussion of every British colony in the New World
Greene, Evarts Boutelle et al., American Population before the Federal Census of 1790, 1993, ISBN 0806313773
Greene, Evarts Boutelle. Provincial America, 1690-1740. 1905. online
Osgood, Herbert L. The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century. 4 vol Columbia University Press, 1904-07. online
Vickers, Daniel, ed. A Companion to Colonial America. Blackwell, 2003. 576 pp.