The Thirteen Colonies

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 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:

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 population boom in 17^th 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.

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.

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.

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:

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

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:

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.