Small, vulnerable, and prone to high death rates, the thirteen colonies hardly resembled the America we know today. Luck, goodwill from Indigenous peoples, and a stream of resources from England turned these failing settlements into successful colonies. Who exactly were the early settlers? And why are the Thirteen Colonies still important today? Read on to learn more!
The Thirteen Colonies Members
The Thirteen Colonies were located on the East coast of America. Here is a list of the colonies in chronological order and when they were founded:
Virginia - 1607
Massachusetts - 1620
New Hampshire - 1622
New York - 1622
Maryland - 1632
Connecticut - 1633
Delaware - 1638
Rhode Island - 1647
New Jersey - 1664
Pennsylvania - 1681
North Carolina - 1710
South Carolina - 1710
Georgia - 1732
Fig. 1 The Thirteen colonies map
Did you know? Georgia was the last of the thirteen colonies to be established by James Oglethorpe in 1732. It was also the last Confederate state to be readmitted into the Union in 1870 after the American Civil War.
First Flag of the Thirteen Colonies
The Grand Union flag was the American colonies' first official flag. The flag contained the British 'Union Jack' in the corner, while the thirteen red and white stripes represented the thirteen colonies.
Fig. 2 Grand Union flag
The presence of the British flag might seem strange, given that the Thirteen Colonies would famously wage war to become independent of Britain. However, as the historian Barlow Cumberland states:
The retention of the Union Jack in the new flag was intended to signify that the colonies retained their allegiance to Great Britain, although they were contesting the methods of government.1
The inclusion of the British flag made sense for the Thirteen Colonies, who saw themselves as part of England's empire. It was only in the late 1760s that tensions ran high enough to alienate the colonists from their motherland, Britain.
Building the Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were 150 years in the making. They can be divided by geographical location into the New England colonies, the Middle Colonies, and the South Colonies:
| New England | Middle | South |
| New Hampshire | New York | Maryland |
| Massachusetts | New Jersey | Virginia |
| Rhode Island | Pennsylvania | North & South Carolina |
| Connecticut | Delaware | Georgia |
Motivations for Building the Thirteen Colonies
We can characterize the colonists' motivations for expansion as gold, glory, and God.
Firstly, the Virginia Company in London wanted to bring wealth to the company's shareholders. Investors saw the New World as an opportunity for trade and an untapped market.
The New World
The early term for the Americas, which Europeans only came across in the 15th century. It was used to convey a sense of adventure, foreignness, and freedom.
The population boom in 17th century England led to overcrowding and poor living conditions. Farmers had little land to expand on. There was glory to be had in expanding Britain's colony in North America and 'discovering' new lands. Others traveled to America to escape religious persecution in England, like the Puritans.
What was the first English settlement in the Thirteen Colonies?
The first English settlement was in Jamestown, Virginia, named after King James I. The site of the settlement gave the first settlers a range of problems. The colony sat on swampy land, making it a breeding ground for disease.
Fig. 3 Pocahontas at the court of King James
Due to the severe food and water shortage, Jamestown allied with the local Indigenous peoples. The Powhatan nation gave corn to the colony and ultimately saved the colony from starvation. A fragile alliance between the Jamestown colonists and the Powhatan nation prevented conflict between the two for a time.
Building the Thirteen Colonies: New England
The colonists who settled in the New England area were predominantly Puritan. The Puritans were radical Protestants who criticized Parliament for not being Protestant enough. They were frequently executed or exiled. They saw America as their chance to establish a religious community without interference from Parliament or the Crown.
Unlike other colonies, New England had poor, rocky soil that was not suitable for farming or agriculture. Luckily, the Atlantic Ocean bordered New England on two sides, making it ideal for trading. New England's economy specialized in fur trading, lumber, fishing, and shipbuilding. Its good position for trade helped build up the merchant class in New England.
Did you know?
New England became an important producer of rum, which was made from molasses. Merchants in New England often protested attempts from England to tax or obstruct rum trade, like the 1733 Molasses Act. This issue of excessive taxation would be an important factor for the American Revolution.
Building the Thirteen Colonies: Middle Colonies
While the New England colonies were made up of primarily Puritans, the middle colonies had a diverse religious population. Colonists came from all over Europe and could be Catholic, Protestant, or follow other Christian branches.
The central location of the middle colonies made it an ideal distribution center for the other colonies. These colonies were a unique combination of both their northern and southern counterparts. Indentured servitude was especially common in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
Indentured Servant
A person who works without a salary. This was to pay off a 'loan' whose terms were defined by the employer. These servants were heavily exploited and had poor working conditions.
The middle colonies had fertile farming lands, which led the colonies to become significant exporters of grain. From 1725 to 1840, Pennsylvania led food production in America. The middle colonies had extensive forests. Lumber and shipbuilding industries became dominant in the area. The middle colonies' industries flourished, but could not rival the New England colonies in terms of profit.
Building the Thirteen Colonies: Southern Colonies
Unlike the middle colonies, the southern colonies were settled by predominantly English settlers. The land of the South was a sharp contrast to that of the New England and middle colonies. The South's rural landscape gave way to large farms known as plantations. Due to the size and labor force required for the plantations, the South ultimately turned to the transatlantic slave trade to meet their labor needs.
Fig 4 Transatlantic slave trade
Each colony found its unique agricultural staple. Rice and indigo were bountiful in South Carolina, while Virginia and Maryland specialized in tobacco. Most of the South’s population owned and worked on small farms. However, a wealthy planter class emerged with large plantations, where indentured servants and enslaved people made up the majority of the labor force. With bountiful agricultural staples, the South exported many goods to England.
Importance of the Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies can feel like a far-off, distant community with little relevance to modern-day society. But in fact, the Thirteen Colonies were influential in making America the superpower it is today.
Importance of the Thirteen Colonies: Government
Colonies set up councils and assemblies that governed over the community. Issues such as tax and voting were decided internally rather than externally by Britain. Only propertied freedmen could vote and stand for election.
An early example was Virginia’s House of Burgesses, an assembly created in 1619 to represent Virginia's districts and decide on local matters. Another example was the Mayflower Compact signed by the Pilgrims before settling in New England. The early colonists knew that without agreed laws, their colonies would have little chance of surviving. The Compact promised:
“to enact... just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices... as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.2
The Compact was an early attempt at a representative democracy (at least for men) and a self-governing system. These laws and assemblies grew organically over the next century.
The colonial assemblies were key during the lead up to the American Revolution. The British Parliament argued that taxation without representation was justified because American colonists instead had “virtual representation”. Just like how most adults in England could not vote but were still ‘represented’ by Parliament, so too, they argued, were Americans. This “virtual representation” was less easily accepted by the Americans than Englishmen, however, because the colonists had become used to voting in their own colonial governments over the past hundred years.
Fig. 5 Museum of the American Revolution
American Revolution
The Thirteen Colonies' war of independence from Britain, from 1775 to 1783.
Colonial governors, who were appointed by England, were overthrown during the American Revolution. One example was the Massachusetts governor Thomas Gage. The shift in power from English-backed governors to homegrown colonial assemblies signaled the loss of England’s power during the American Revolution.
Importance of the Thirteen Colonies: Economic Power
The thirteen colonies eventually saw unprecedented economic prosperity. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the colonies' economic growth exceeded England's growth rate.3
The colonies' large and successful economy sustained the slave trade. The importance of slavery to the Thirteen Colonies' economic growth cannot be understated:
One crop, slave-grown cotton, provided over half of all US export earnings. By 1840, the South grew 60% of the world's cotton and provided some 70% of the cotton consumed by the British textile industry.4 - Steven Mintz, Historian
Cotton was key to the Southern colonies' success. It explains why slavery was not abolished even after the American Revolution, which had proclaimed "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
The Thirteen Colonies' economic success inflamed England's tax policies. In 1765, the British Parliament enacted the Stamp Act which taxed most printed materials. Britain continued to apply heavy taxation policies until the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775.
Key takeaways
The Thirteen Colonies were settlements that would form the original United States of America.
The first permanent settlement in the colonies was Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.
Though the settlement was ravaged by disease and food shortages, their alliance with Indigenous peoples allowed them time to recoup their losses.
Economic industries included:
New England Colonies - fur-trading, fishing, and shipbuilding.
Middle Colonies - agriculture, shipbuilding, and lumber.
Southern Colonies - agriculture, exporting agricultural goods to Europe.
The Thirteen Colonies set up independent councils and assemblies to govern themselves.
The growing rift between these councils and the British Parliament would help ignite the American Revolution in 1775.
References
- Barlow Cumberland, History of the Union Jack, (1926)
- Mayflower Compact, 1620. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/mayflower.asp
- John H. McCusker, Measuring Colonial Gross Domestic Product: An Introduction, 1999
- Steven Mintz. "Historical Context: Was Slavery the Engine of American Economic Growth?" The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
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