What are the 13 original states?

The 13 original states are Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island, listed in the order they ratified the Constitution between 1787 and 1790. Each began as a separate British colony with its own charter. Virginia was founded at Jamestown in 1607 as the first permanent English settlement, followed by the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620 and the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1630. New Hampshire took shape in the 1620s and was a separate royal colony by 1679. Maryland received its proprietary charter from Charles I in 1632 as a refuge for English Catholics. Connecticut adopted the Fundamental Orders in 1639 and merged with New Haven in 1664. Rhode Island traced its founding to Roger Williams at Providence in 1636 and gained a royal charter in 1663. The Carolinas were chartered in 1663 and split into North and South Carolina in 1712. New York was seized from the Dutch in 1664 and renamed for the Duke of York, with New Jersey carved from the same grant. Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn in 1681 as a Quaker haven, and Delaware separated from it in 1704. Georgia, chartered in 1732 under James Oglethorpe, was the last of the 13.

The colonies fall into three regions. The New England colonies of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island built town meetings, fishing, shipbuilding, and Puritan religious life. The Middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware combined religious diversity, grain agriculture, and the busy ports of Philadelphia and New York City. The Southern colonies of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia centered on plantation agriculture, tobacco, rice, indigo, and the labor of enslaved Africans.

All 13 sent delegates to the Second Continental Congress that adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Article VII of the Constitution required nine states to ratify before the new government took effect. Delaware ratified first on December 7, 1787, New Hampshire became the ninth on June 21, 1788, and Rhode Island held out until May 29, 1790.

The original 13 are commemorated by the 13 stripes on the American flag, the 13 arrows held by the eagle on the Great Seal of 1782, and the 13 stars on the Betsy Ross flag of 1777. Naturalization candidates should be able to name several of these states and recognize that the founding generation built a national government out of these distinct colonial communities.