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Thirteen Colonies
1732–1776
Flag of Great Britain (1707–1776)
The thirteen colonies (shown red) in 1775.
Status	Part of British America (1607–1776) as Colonies of England (1607–1707) Colonies of Great Britain (1707–1776)
Capital	Administered from London, England
Common languages	English German Dutch Multiple indigenous languages
Religion	Puritanism Anglicanism Other Protestantism Judaism Roman Catholicism Native American religion
Government	Colonial Constitutional monarchy
Monarch
• 1607–1625	James I & VI (first)
• 1760–1783	George III (last)
History
• Roanoke Colony	1585
• Virginia Colony	1607
• New England	1620
• King Charles II charter for Rhode Island and Providence Plantations	1663
• Rupert's Land	1670
• Treaty of Utrecht	1713
• 13th colony formed	1732
• Independence declared	1776
• Treaty of Paris	1783
Population
• 1625	1,980
• 1775	2,400,000
Currency	Pound sterling Colonial money Bills of credit Commodity money
Preceded by Succeeded by Pre-colonial North America New Netherland United States
Today part of	United States

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The Thirteen Colonies were a group of British colonies on the east coast of North America founded in the 17th and 18th centuries that declared independence in 1776 and formed the United States of America. The thirteen were (roughly north to south): Province of New Hampshire, Province of Massachusetts Bay, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut Colony, Province of New York, Province of New Jersey, Province of Pennsylvania, Delaware Colony, Province of Maryland, Colony of Virginia, Province of North Carolina, Province of South Carolina, and Province of Georgia.

The Thirteen Colonies had very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, and were dominated by Protestant English-speakers. They were part of Britain's possessions in the New World, which also included colonies in Canada and the Caribbean, as well as East and West Florida. In the 18th century, the British government operated its colonies under a policy of mercantilism, in which the central government administered its possessions for the economic benefit of the mother country. However, the Thirteen Colonies had a high degree of self-government and active local elections, and increasingly resisted London's demands for more control. In the 1750s, the colonies began collaborating with one another instead of dealing directly with Britain. These inter-colonial activities cultivated a sense of shared American identity and led to calls for protection of the colonists' "Rights as Englishmen", especially the principle of "no taxation without representation". Grievances with the British government led to the American Revolution, in which the colonies collaborated in forming a Continental Congress which declared independence in 1776 and fought the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) with the aid of France, the Dutch Republic, and Spain. The American flag features thirteen horizontal stripes which represent these original thirteen colonies.

Predecessors prior to 1730

Dominion of New England

Created in 1685 by a decree from King James II that consolidated New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Province of New York, East Jersey, and West Jersey into a single larger colony. The consolidation collapsed after the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89, and the nine former colonies re-established their separate identities in 1689.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Settled in 1630 by Puritans from England. The colonial charter was revoked in 1684, and a new charter was issued in 1691 establishing an enlarged Province of Massachusetts Bay.

Colonies in present-day Maine

Settled in 1622 The Massachusetts Bay Colony claimed the Maine territory in the 1650s, which had a few settlements in southernmost Maine. They were formally made part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the charter of 1691.

Plymouth Colony

Settled in 1620 by the Pilgrims. Plymouth was merged into the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the charter of 1691.

Saybrook Colony

Founded in 1635 and merged with Connecticut Colony in 1644.

New Haven Colony

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 judges who had sentenced King Charles I to death.

New Netherland

Extensive region centered about New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island. Prior to its capture by the English on September 6, 1664, it was administered by the Dutch West India Company on site since May 1624. There were earlier New Netherland settlements within this region. Including Fort Nassau (North River) established in 1614 or 1615 within present-day Albany beside the Hudson River. Which was the first formal Dutch presence in North America.

East Jersey and West Jersey

Settled as part of New Netherland in the 1610s. New Jersey was captured (along with New York) by English forces in 1664. New Jersey was divided into two separate colonies in 1674, which were reunited in 1702.

Colony of Virginia

The colony existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607. It was the first permanently settled English colony in North America.

Province of Carolina

Founded in 1663. Carolina colony was divided into two colonies in 1712: North Carolina and South Carolina. Both colonies became royal colonies in 1729.

The Thirteen Colonies

The first permanently settled English colony in North America was the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, established 1607. The number of "thirteen" was 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.

Contemporary documents usually list the thirteen colonies of British North America in geographical order, from the north to the south:

New England colonies

• Province of New Hampshire, later New Hampshire, established in the 1620s, chartered as crown colony in 1679
• Province of Massachusetts Bay, later Massachusetts, a crown colony established 1692
• Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, later Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, established 1636, chartered as crown colony in 1663
• Connecticut Colony, later Connecticut, established 1636, chartered as crown colony in 1662

Middle colonies

• Province of New York, later New York and Vermont, proprietary colony 1664–1685, crown colony from 1686
• Province of New Jersey, later New Jersey, proprietary colony from 1664, crown colony from 1702
• Province of Pennsylvania, later Pennsylvania, a proprietary colony established 1681
• Delaware Colony (before 1776, the Lower Counties on Delaware), later Delaware, a proprietary colony established 1664

Southern colonies

• Province of Maryland, later Maryland, a proprietary colony established 1632
• Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later Virginia and Kentucky (and West Virginia following the American Civil War), a crown colony established 1607
• Province of North Carolina, later North Carolina and Tennessee, a crown colony established 1712
• Province of South Carolina, later South Carolina, a crown colony established 1712
• Province of Georgia, later Georgia, northern sections of Alabama and Mississippi, a crown colony established 1732

Virginia and Maryland comprised the Chesapeake Colonies; North and South Carolina were united as the Province of Carolina 1629–1712.

Governance and colonial politics

Each of the thirteen colonies developed its own system of limited local self-government under an appointed royal governor, derived from the English system of common law and composed largely of independent farmers who owned their own land, voted for their local and provincial government, and served on local juries. Colonial decisions were subject to approval by the governor and the home government. There were also substantial populations of African slaves in some of the colonies, especially Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia.

The names of the colonies were chosen by the founders and proprietors, subject to royal approval, and given in the founding charters. Nine of the thirteen chose to include in their names the term "Province of...", which had no political significance. Later residents tended to drop the ambiguous terminology, as in the map shown in the article Province of New Jersey, which is labeled simply "East Jersey" and "West Jersey".

Population

The colonial population rose to a quarter of a million during the 17th century, and to nearly 2.5 million on the eve of the American revolution. Perkins (1988) notes the importance of good health for the growth of the colonies: "Fewer deaths among the young meant that a higher proportion of the population reached reproductive age, and that fact alone helps to explain why the colonies grew so rapidly." There were, of course, many other reasons for the population growth besides good health, such as the Great Migration.

By 1776, about 85% of the white population was derived from the British Isles (English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh), with 9% of German origin and 4% Dutch. Over 90% were farmers, with several small cities that were also seaports linking the colonial economy to the larger British Empire. These populations continued to grow at a rapid rate during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, primarily because of high birth rates and relatively low death rates. Immigration was a minor factor from 1774 to 1830.

Slaves

Slavery was legal and practiced in many of the Thirteen Colonies. In most places, it involved house servants or farm workers. It was of economic importance in the export-oriented tobacco plantations of Virginia and Maryland and on the rice and indigo plantations of South Carolina. About 287,000 slaves were imported into the Thirteen Colonies over a period of 160 years, or 2% of the estimated 12 million taken from Africa to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade. The great majority went to sugar colonies in the Caribbean and to Brazil, where life expectancy was short and the numbers had to be continually replenished. By the mid-18th century, life expectancy was much higher in the American colonies.

The numbers grew rapidly through a very high birth rate and low mortality rate, reaching nearly four million by the 1860 census. From 1770 until 1860, the rate of natural growth of North American slaves was much greater than for the population of any nation in Europe, and was nearly twice as rapid as that in England.

Religion

Christianity was the predominant religion in the Thirteen Colonies. There were also adherents of Judaism and deism, as well as irreligious people.

The colonies were religiously diverse, with numerous Protestant denominations brought by British, German, Dutch, and other immigrants. Christianity was especially strong in New England, as well as in many German and Dutch settlements. The Church of England was officially established in most of the South, but its Anglican churches were often controlled by local planters, in a belt stretching from Virginia as far as Georgia, and its enemies blocked the appointment of bishops.

The Reformed tradition was supported by Puritans in New England, who felt that the Church of England was not sufficiently reformed. It was brought in its various Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Continental Reformed varieties. The Dutch Reformed Church was popular among Dutch Americans, and Lutheranism was prevalent among German immigrants. They also brought diverse forms of Anabaptism, especially the Amish variety. Quakers founded Pennsylvania, and Baptist preacher Roger Williams founded Providence Plantations which became Rhode Island. Roman Catholics and Jews also arrived, and English Catholics founded Maryland.

Education

Higher education was available for young men in the North, and most students were aspiring Protestant ministers. The oldest colleges were Harvard College, College of New Jersey (Princeton), Yale College, and College of Rhode Island (Brown). Others were King's College (Columbia), the College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania), and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. South of Philadelphia, there was only the College of William and Mary which trained the secular elite in Virginia, especially aspiring lawyers.

Most New England towns sponsored public schools for boys, but public schooling was rare elsewhere. Girls were educated at home or by small local private schools, and they had no access to college. Aspiring physicians and lawyers typically learned as apprentices to an established practitioner, although some young men went to medical schools in Scotland.

Government

British role

After 1680, the royal government in London took an increasing interest in the affairs of the colonies, which were growing rapidly in population and wealth. In 1680, only Virginia was a royal colony; by 1720, half were under the control of royal governors. These governors were appointees closely tied to the government in London.

Historians before the 1880s emphasized American nationalism. However, scholarship after that time was heavily influenced by the "Imperial school" led by Herbert L. Osgood, George Louis Beer, Charles McLean Andrews, and Lawrence H. Gipson. This viewpoint dominated colonial historiography into the 1940s, and they emphasized and often praised the attention that London gave to all the colonies. In this view, there was never a threat (before the 1770s) that any colony would revolt or seek independence.

Self-government

British settlers did not come to the American colonies with the intention of creating a democratic system; yet they quickly created a broad electorate without a land-owning aristocracy, along with a pattern of free elections which put a strong emphasis on voter participation. The colonies offered a much freer degree of suffrage than England or indeed any other country. Any property owner could vote for members of the lower house of the legislature, and they could even vote for the governor in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Voters were required to hold an "interest" in society; as the South Carolina legislature said in 1716, "it is necessary and reasonable, that none but such persons will have an interest in the Province should be capable to elect members of the Commons House of Assembly". The main legal criterion for having an "interest" was ownership of real estate property, which was uncommon in Britain, where 19 out of 20 men were controlled politically by their landlords. (Women, children, indentured servants, and slaves were subsumed under the interest of the family head.) London insisted on this requirement for the colonies, telling governors to exclude from the ballot men who were not freeholders—that is, those who did not own land. Nevertheless, land was so widely owned that 50% to 80% of the men were eligible to vote.

The colonial political culture emphasized deference, so that local notables were the men who ran and were chosen. But sometimes they competed with each other and had to appeal to the common man for votes. There were no political parties, and would-be legislators formed ad-hoc coalitions of their families, friends, and neighbors. Outside of Puritan New England, election day brought in all the men from the countryside to the county seat to make merry, politick, shake hands with the grandees, meet old friends, and hear the speeches—all the while toasting, eating, treating, tippling, and gambling. They voted by shouting their choice to the clerk, as supporters cheered or booed. Candidate George Washington spent £39 for treats for his supporters. The candidates knew that they had to "swill the planters with bumbo" (rum). Elections were carnivals where all men were equal for one day and traditional restraints were relaxed.

The actual rate of voting ranged from 20% to 40% of all adult white males. The rates were higher in Pennsylvania and New York, where long-standing factions based on ethnic and religious groups mobilized supporters at a higher rate. New York and Rhode Island developed long-lasting two-faction systems that held together for years at the colony level, but they did not reach into local affairs. The factions were based on the personalities of a few leaders and an array of family connections, and they had little basis in policy or ideology. Elsewhere the political scene was in a constant whirl, based on personality rather than long-lived factions or serious disputes on issues.

The colonies were independent of one other long before 1774; indeed, all the colonies began as separate and unique settlements or plantations. Further, efforts had failed to form a colonial union through the Albany Congress of 1754 led by Benjamin Franklin. The thirteen all had well-established systems of self-government and elections based on the Rights of Englishmen which they were determined to protect from imperial interference.

Economic policy

The British Empire at the time operated under the mercantile system, where all trade was concentrated inside the Empire, and trade with other empires was forbidden. The goal was to enrich Britain—its merchants and its government. Whether the policy was good for the colonists was not an issue in London, but Americans became increasingly restive with mercantilist policies.

Mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximize exports from and minimize imports to the realm. The government had to fight smuggling—which became a favorite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch. The tactic used by mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on a superb Royal Navy, which not only protected the British colonies but threatened the colonies of the other empires, and sometimes seized them. Thus the British Navy captured New Amsterdam (New York) in 1664. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country.

Legislation prior to 1763

Britain implemented mercantilism by trying to block American trade with the French, Spanish, or Dutch empires using the Navigation Acts, which Americans avoided as often as they could. The royal officials responded to smuggling with open-ended search warrants (Writs of Assistance). In 1761, Boston lawyer James Otis argued that the writs violated the constitutional rights of the colonists. He lost the case, but John Adams later wrote, "Then and there the child Independence was born."

However, the colonists took pains to argue that they did not oppose British regulation of their external trade; they only opposed legislation which affected them internally.

On December 1, 1763, Patrick Henry argued the Parson's Cause in the Colony of Virginia at Hanover Courthouse, where the legislature had passed a law which was then vetoed by the king. Henry argued "that a King, by disallowing Acts of this salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated into a Tyrant and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience".

Great Britain took control of the French holdings in North America outside the Caribbean following their victory in the French and Indian War in 1763. The British sought to maintain peaceful relations with those Indian tribes that had allied with the French, to keep them separated from the American frontiersmen. To this end, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 restricted settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, as this was designated an Indian Reserve. Some groups of settlers disregarded the proclamation, continuing to move west and establish farms. The proclamation was soon modified and was no longer a hindrance to settlement, but the fact angered the colonists that it had been promulgated without their prior consultation.

Coming of the American revolution

Americans insisted on the principle of "no taxation without representation" beginning with the intense protests over the Stamp Act of 1765, representation being understood in the context of Parliament directly levying the duty or excise tax, and thus by-passing the colonial legislatures, which had levied taxes on the colonies in the monarch's stead prior to 1763. They argued that the colonies had no representation in the British Parliament, so it was a violation of their rights as Englishmen for taxes to be imposed upon them. The other British colonies that had assemblies largely agreed with those in the Thirteen Colonies, but they were thoroughly controlled by the British Empire and the Royal Navy, so protests were hopeless.

Parliament rejected the colonial protests and asserted its authority by passing new taxes. Trouble escalated over the tea tax, as Americans in each colony boycotted the tea, and those in Boston dumped the tea in the harbor during the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Tensions escalated in 1774 as Parliament passed the laws known as the Intolerable Acts, which greatly restricted self-government in the colony of Massachusetts, among other things.

In response, the colonies formed extralegal bodies of elected representatives, generally known as Provincial Congresses. Colonists emphasized their determination by boycotting imports of British merchandise. Later in 1774, twelve colonies sent representatives to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. During the Second Continental Congress, the thirteenth colony (Georgia) sent delegates, as well. By spring 1775, all royal officials had been expelled from all thirteen colonies. The Continental Congress became a national government. It raised an army to fight the British and named George Washington its commander, made treaties, declared independence, and recommended that the colonies write constitutions and become states.

Maps

• British colonies in North America, c. 1750.
  1. Newfoundland
  2. Nova Scotia
  3. Thirteen Colonies
  4. Bermuda
  5. Bahamas
  6. British Honduras (was Spanish c. 1750: became British in 1798)
  7. Jamaica
  8. British Leeward Islands and Barbados
• North American colonies 1763–76, illustrating territorial claims
• In 1775, the British claimed authority over the red and pink areas on this map and Spain claimed the orange. The red area is the area of settlement; most lived within 50 miles of the ocean.
• State land claims based on colonial charters, and later cessions to the U.S. government, 1782–1802

Other British colonies

Besides these thirteen colonies, Britain had another dozen in the New World. Those in the British West Indies, Newfoundland, the Province of Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Bermuda, and East and West Florida remained loyal to the crown throughout the war (although Spain reacquired Florida before the war was over). There was a certain degree of sympathy with the Patriot cause in several of the other colonies, but their geographical isolation and the dominance of British naval power precluded any effective participation. The British crown had only recently acquired those lands, and many of the issues facing the Thirteen Colonies did not apply to them, especially in the case of Quebec and Florida.

At the time of the war Britain had seven other colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America: Newfoundland, Rupert's Land (the area around the Hudson Bay), Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, East Florida, West Florida, and the Province of Quebec. There were other colonies in the Americas as well, largely in the British West Indies. These colonies remained loyal to the crown.

Newfoundland stayed loyal to Britain without question. It was exempt from the Navigation Acts and shared none of the grievances of the continental colonies. It was tightly bound to Britain and controlled by the Royal Navy and had no assembly that could voice grievances.

Nova Scotia had a large Yankee element that had recently arrived from New England, and shared the sentiments of the Americans about demanding the rights of the British men. The royal government in Halifax reluctantly allowed the Yankees of Nova Scotia a kind of "neutrality." In any case, the island-like geography and the presence of the major British naval base at Halifax made the thought of armed resistance impossible.

Quebec was inhabited by French Catholic settlers who came under British control in the previous decade. The Quebec Act of 1774 gave them formal cultural autonomy within the empire, and many priests feared the intense Protestantism in New England. The American grievances over taxation had little relevance, and there was no assembly nor elections of any kind that could have mobilized any grievances. Even so, the Americans offered membership in the new nation and sent a military expedition that failed to capture Canada in 1775. Most Canadians remained neutral but some joined the American cause.

In the West Indies the elected assemblies of Jamaica, Grenada, and Barbados formally declared their sympathies for the American cause and called for mediation, but the others were quite loyal. Britain carefully avoided antagonizing the rich owners of sugar plantations (many of whom lived in London); in turn the planters' greater dependence on slavery made them recognize the need for British military protection from possible slave revolts. The possibilities for overt action were sharply limited by the overwhelming power of Royal Navy in the islands. During the war there was some opportunistic trading with American ships.

In Bermuda and the Bahamas local leaders were angry at the food shortages caused by British blockade of American ports. There was increasing sympathy for the American cause, including smuggling, and both colonies were considered "passive allies" of the United States throughout the war. When an American naval squadron arrived in the Bahamas to seize gunpowder, the colony gave no resistance at all.

East Florida and West Florida were territories transferred from Spain to Britain after the French and Indian War by treaty. The few British colonists there needed protection from attacks by Indians and Spanish privateers. After 1775, East Florida became a major base for the British war effort in the South, especially in the invasions of Georgia and South Carolina. However, Spain seized Pensacola in West Florida in 1781, then recovered both territories in the Treaty of Paris that ended the war in 1783. Spain ultimately transferred the Florida provinces to the United States in 1819.

Historiography

The first British empire centered on the 13 American colonies, which attracted large numbers of settlers from Britain. The "Imperial School" in the 1900s–1930s period took a favorable view of the benefits of empire, emphasizing its successful economic integration. The Imperial School included such historians as Herbert L. Osgood, George Louis Beer, Charles M. Andrews, and Lawrence Gipson.

The shock of Britain's defeat in 1783 caused a radical revision of their policies on colonialism, thereby producing what historians call the end of the First British Empire; of course, Britain still owned Canada and some islands in the West Indies. Ashley Jackson writes:

The first British Empire was largely destroyed by the loss of the American colonies, followed by a "swing to the east" and the foundation of a second British Empire based on commercial and territorial expansion in South Asia.

Much of the historiography concerns the reasons why the Americans rebelled in the 1770s and successfully broke away. Since the 1960s, the mainstream of historiography emphasizes the growth of American consciousness and nationalism, and its Republican value system in opposition to the aristocratic viewpoint of British leaders.

In the analysis of the coming of the Revolution, historians in recent decades have mostly used one of three approaches.

• The Atlantic history view places the American story in a broader context, including revolutions in France and Haiti. It tends to integrate the historiographies of the American Revolution and the British Empire.
• The "New social history" approach looks at community social structure to find cleavages that were magnified into colonial cleavages.
• The ideological approach centers on Republicanism in the United States. Republicanism dictated that there would be no royalty or aristocracy or national church. It did permit continuation of the British common law, which American lawyers and jurists understood, approved of, and used in their everyday practice. Historians have examined how the rising American legal profession adapted the British common law to incorporate republicanism by selective revision of legal customs and by introducing more choice for courts.

See also

• Atlantic history
• British America
• British colonization of the Americas
• Colonial American military history
• Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies
• Colonial history of the United States
• Colonial South and the Chesapeake
• Credit in the Thirteen Colonies
• Cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies
• History of the United States (1776–89)

Notes

1. ^ U.S. Bureau of the Census, A century of population growth from the first census of the United States to the twelfth, 1790–1900 (1909) p. 9.
2. Richard Middleton and Anne Lombard, Colonial America: A History to 1763 (4th ed. 2011),
3. The number thirteen is mentioned as early as 1720 by Abel Boyer, The Political State of Great Britain vol. 19, p. 376: "so in this Country we have Thirteen Colonies at least severally govern'd by their repective Commanders in Chief, according to their peculiar Laws and Constitutions." This includes Carolina as a single colony, and does not include Georgia, but instead counts Nova Scotia and Newfoundland as British colonies. Early use of the term "thirteen colonies" in reference to the founding states of the US date to the American Revolution, e.g.: John Roebuck, An Enquiry, Whether the Guilt of the Present Civil War in America, Ought to be Imputed to Great Britain Or America, p. 21: "though the colonies be thus absolutely subject to the parliament of England, the individuals of which the colony consist, may enjoy security, and freedom; there is not a single inhabitant, of the thirteen colonies, now in arms, but who may be conscious of the truth of this assertion". The critical review, or annals of literature vol. 48 (1779), p. 136: "during the last war, no part of his majesty's dominions contained a greater proportion of faithful subjects than the Thirteen Colonies. This being the case he asks, how can it happen, that a people so lately loyal, should so suddenly become universally disloyal, and firmly attached to republican government".
4. The present state of Vermont was disputed between the colonies of New York and New Hampshire. From 1777 to 1791, it existed as the de facto independent Vermont Republic.
5. Note: the population figures are estimates by historians; they do not include the Indian tribes outside the jurisdiction of the colonies. They do include Indians living under colonial control, as well as slaves and indentured servants. U.S. Bureau of the Census, A century of population growth from the first census of the United States to the twelfth, 1790–1900 (1909) p. 9
6. Edwin J. Perkins (1988). The Economy of Colonial America. Columbia UP. p. 7.
7. Smith, Daniel Scott (1972). "The Demographic History of Colonial New England". The Journal of Economic History. 32 (1): 165–83. doi:10.1017/S0022050700075458. JSTOR 2117183. PMID 11632252.
8. Betty Wood, Slavery in Colonial America, 1619–1776 (2013) excerpt and text search
9. Paul Finkelman (2006). Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895. Oxford UP. pp. 2:156.
10. Source: Miller and Smith, eds. Dictionary of American Slavery (1988) p . 678
11. Patricia U. Bonomi, Under the cope of heaven: Religion, society, and politics in Colonial America (2003).
12. Wayne J. Urban and Jennings L. Wagoner Jr., American Education: A History (5th ed. 2013) pp 11-54.
13. Max Savelle, "The Imperial School of American Colonial Historians". Indiana Magazine of History (1949): 123-134 in JSTOR also online
14. ^ Robert J. Dinkin, Voting in Provincial America: A Study of Elections in the Thirteen Colonies, 1689–1776 (1977)
15. Thomas Cooper and David James McCord, eds. The Statutes at Large of South Carolina: Acts, 1685–1716 (1837) p 688
16. Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote (2000) pp 5–8
17. Daniel Vickers, A Companion to Colonial America (2006) p. 300
18. Greene and Pole, eds. '"A Companion to the American Revolution (2004) quote p. 665
19. Max Savelle, Seeds of Liberty: The Genesis of the American Mind (2005) pp. 204–211
20. George Otto Trevelyan, The American revolution: Volume 1 (1899) p. 128 online
21. William R. Nester, The Great Frontier War: Britain, France, and the Imperial Struggle for North America, 1607–1755 (Praeger, 2000) p, 54.
22. Stephens, Unreasonable Searches and Seizures (2006) p. 306
23. http://www.vahistorical.org/sites/default/files/uploads/sov_americans.pdf
24. John C. Miller, Origins of the American Revolution (1943)
25. Colin G. Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America (2006), pp 92–98
26. W. J. Rorabaugh, Donald T. Critchlow, Paula C. Baker (2004). "America's promise: a concise history of the United States". Rowman & Littlefield. p.92. ISBN 0-7425-1189-8
27. Woody Holton, "The Ohio Indians and the coming of the American revolution in Virginia", Journal of Southern History, (1994) 60#3 pp. 453–78
28. J. R. Pole, Political Representation in England and the Origins of the American Republic (London; Melbourne: Macmillan, 1966), 31, http://www.questia.com/read/89805613.
29. Donald William Meinig, The Shaping of America: Atlantic America, 1492–1800 (1986) p. 315; Greene and Pole, Companion ch. 63
30. T.H. Breen, American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People (2010) pp 81–82
31. Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (Oxford History of the United States) (2007)
32. Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole, eds. '"A Companion to the American Revolution (2004) ch. 63
33. Lawrence Gipson, The British Empire Before the American Revolution (15 volumes, 1936–1970), highly detailed discussion of every British colony in the New World in the 1750s and 1760s
34. Lawrence Gipson, The British Empire Before the American Revolution (15 volumes, 1936–1970)
35. Meinig pp. 313–14; Greene and Pole (2004) ch. 61
36. Meinig pp 314–15; Greene and Pole (2004) ch 61
37. Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean (2000) ch 6
38. Meinig pp 315–16; Greene and Pole (2004) ch 63
39. Meinig p 316
40. P. J. Marshall, ed. The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume II: The Eighteenth Century (2001)
41. Robert L. Middlekauff, "The American Continental Colonies in the Empire", in Robin Winks, ed., The Historiography of the British Empire-Commonwealth: Trends, Interpretations and Resources (1966) pp 23-45.
42. William G. Shade, "Lawrence Henry Gipson's Empire: The Critics". Pennsylvania History (1969): 49-69 online.
43. Brendan Simms, Three victories and a defeat: the rise and fall of the first British Empire 2008
44. Ashley Jackson (2013). The British Empire: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP. p. 72.
45. Ian Tyrrell, "Making Nations/Making States: American Historians in the Context of Empire", Journal of American History, (1999) 86#3 pp:. 1015-1044 in JSTOR
46. Winks, Historiography 5:95
47. Francis D. Cogliano, "Revisiting the American Revolution", History Compass (2010) 8#8 pp 951-963.
48. Eliga H. Gould, Peter S. Onuf, eds. Empire and Nation: The American Revolution in the Atlantic World (2005)
49. David Kennedy; Lizabeth Cohen (2015). American Pageant. Cengage Learning. p. 156.
50. Ellen Holmes Pearson. "Revising Custom, Embracing Choice: Early American Legal Scholars and the Republicanization of the Common Law", in Gould and Onuf, eds. Empire and Nation: The American Revolution in the Atlantic World (2005) pp 93-113
51. Anton-Hermann Chroust, Rise of the Legal Profession in America (1965) vol 2.

Further reading

• Adams, James Truslow (1922). The Founding of New England. Atlantic Monthly Press; full text online.
• Adams, James Truslow. Revolutionary New England, 1691–1776 (1923)
• Andrews, Charles M. The Colonial Period of American History (4 vol. 1934–38), the standard political overview to 1700
• Chitwood, Oliver. A history of colonial America (1961), older textbook
• Cooke, Jacob Ernest et al., ed. Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies. (3 vol. 1993); 2397 pp.; comprehensive coverage; compares British, French, Spanish & Dutch colonies
• Foster, Stephen, ed. British North America in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (2014) DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206124.001.0001 online
• 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 0-8063-1377-3
• Greene, Evarts Boutell (1905). Provincial America, 1690–1740. Harper & brothers; full text online.
• Hawke, David F.; The Colonial Experience; 1966, ISBN 0-02-351830-8. older textbook
• Hawke, David F. Everyday Life in Early America (1989) excerpt and text search
• Middleton, Richard, and Anne Lombard. Colonial America: A History to 1763 (4th ed. 2011), the newest textbook excerpt and text search
• Taylor, Alan. American colonies (2002), 526 pages; recent survey by leading scholar
• Taylor, Alan. American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 (2016) recent survey by leading scholar
• Vickers, Daniel, ed. A Companion to Colonial America. (Blackwell, 2003) 576 pp.; topical essays by experts excerpt

Government

• Andrews, Charles M.Colonial Self-Government, 1652–1689 (1904) full text online
• Dinkin, Robert J. Voting in Provincial America: A Study of Elections in the Thirteen Colonies, 1689–1776 (1977)
• Miller, John C. Origins of the American Revolution (1943)
• Osgood, Herbert L. The American colonies in the seventeenth century, (3 vol 1904-07)' vol. 1 online; vol 2 online; vol 3 online
• Osgood, Herbert L. The American colonies in the eighteenth century (4 vols, 1924–25)

Primary sources

• Kavenagh, W. Keith, ed. Foundations of Colonial America: a Documentary History (6 vol. 1974)
• Sarson, Steven, and Jack P. Greene, eds. The American Colonies and the British Empire, 1607–1783 (8 vol, 2010); primary sources

Online primary sources

• 840+ volumes of colonial records; useful for advanced scholarship

External links

• Media related to Thirteen Colonies at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Territorial expansion of the United States
Thirteen Colonies (1776) Treaty of Paris (1783) Louisiana Purchase (1803) Red River Cession (1818) Adams–Onís Treaty (1819) Texas Annexation (1845) Oregon Treaty (1846) Mexican Cession (1848) Gadsden Purchase (1853) Guano Islands Act (1856) Alaska Purchase (1867) Annexation of Hawaii (1898) Treaty of Paris (1898) Tripartite Convention (1899) Treaty of Cession of Tutuila (1900) Treaty of Cession of Manuʻa (1904) Annexation of Oklahoma (1906) Treaty of the Danish West Indies (1917) Acquisition of the Northern Mariana Islands (1986)
Concept: Manifest destiny

• Thirteen Colonies-related lists
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