There Weren’t Actually Thirteen Original Colonies

One of the most enduring misunderstandings in American history

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The Thirteen Colonies are one of the most enduring parts of early American history. It was the Thirteen Colonies that gave birth to the infant United States of America. But what if I told you that is not true? There weren’t actually thirteen colonies. The number of colonies that people reference is wrong.

Wait. That can’t be right. Can it?

First off, everyone, everyone, uses the term Thirteen Colonies. Secondly, there are thirteen stripes on the American flag to represent the thirteen colonies. Right? Not quite.

So how is it that everyone gets this wrong?

The stripes on the flag actually represent the original thirteen states not colonies. There were thirteen original states but only twelve original colonies.

There were only twelve colonies at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. The colonies were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The missing colony? Delaware.

Delaware has a convoluted history that is enough to confuse even the most ardent students of history. Delaware was the first…