England's 13 Colonies

Although colonists attempted to settle me in 1587, no one knows what ultimately happened to them. We do know that Virginia Dare would become the first English-born child in the New World, here. It wasn’t until 1663 when my charter was given to a group of noblemen called the Lord’s Proprietors that settlement within my borders occurred.

• North Carolina

• South Carolina

• Massachusetts

• Virginia

America’s first permanent colony was settled along my shores in 1607. For many years, the colony seemed on the brink of destruction because of disease and hostile Natives. When John Rolfe perfected a new kind of tobacco, I started to thrive.

• North Carolina

• Massachusetts

• Virginia

• New York

I was given away in 1681 as part of the largest land-grant ever issued at the time. Because my founder was Quaker, my charter was set up to allow for religious freedom, which attracted many settlers from Germany. One of my cities, Philadelphia, would become the most important in all of the colonies and was home to Benjamin Franklin.

• New York

• Maryland

• New Jersey

• Pennsylvania

The first settlers to my shores, the “Pilgrims,” landed in 1620, although they thought they were headed to Virginia. The Pilgrims were quickly absorbed by Puritans, an industrious group of religious reformers who followed strict religious rules and who were intolerant of other religious groups. It was in my largest city, Boston, where many of the events such as the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party occurred before the Revolutionary War.

• Maryland

• Maine

• New Hampshire

• Massachusetts

I was the last of the 13 colonies to be settled. I was founded by James Oglethorpe, who envisioned me as a place where British debtors could find refuge and who would defend the colony from possible attack from Spanish Florida to the south.

• Georgia

• North Carolina

• South Carolina

• Virginia

I was originally settled by the Dutch in 1617 as New Amsterdam. In 1664, however, the British sailed into my harbor and demanded that the Dutch surrender the colony, which included all land between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. The British King, Charles II, named the new colony after his brother.

• New Jersey

• New York

• Pennsylvania

• Delaware

Someone has stolen your phone and hacked into your Facebook and Twitter accounts! Luckily, you have the “Find My iPhone” app and track him down. Around his house, you find cigarettes everywhere! You see plantations for miles and miles that are overflowing with tobacco, wheat and corn! Ugh, you hate tobacco!

• Massachusetts

• North Carolina

• Maryland

• Virginia

You try to use your credit card at Starbucks this morning, but you’ve been denied. Unfortunately, you are the latest victim of identity theft. You look at all the purchases “you” made in the past 12 hours, and it seems the thief has purchased lots of bread and other grains. Swedish artifacts have also been purchased. What in the world? The criminal keeps traveling to bordering states of Maryland and Pennsylvania.

• Virginia

• Delaware

• New Jersey

• New York

A local teacher, Zachary Tanner, is missing. Who will teach the kids? You frantically look through their office for evidence and see the kidnappers have left behind lots of fish, which is the main export of their colony. Help bring back Mr. Tanner!

• New Hampshire

• Maryland

• Massachusetts

• South Carolina

There’s been an awful hit and run on the interstate. You rush to the crime and see pieces of the runaway car on the highway. You also see large piles of rice everywhere as the majority of the land is swampy with lots of mosquitoes.

• North Carolina

• South Carolina

• Georgia

• Maryland