# Original 13 or 15 Colonies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2000, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949 "2000-01-06T20:04:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/21 "2017-12-27T23:27:06Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > 14.5 years between first post (June-2003) and 2nd post (Dec-2017). How close is that to a record? You sure you’re in the right thread? First post here was 2000, as were a bunch of posts after that. As for the record between first and second post, I expect it’s [this thrread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=4243&highlight=howard+hughes) (notice who pointed out the ellapsed time in post #3). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/22 "2017-12-27T23:36:54Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Worth mentioning (just barely) is that the territory of the original 13 states now comprises 16 modern states, with Maine and Vermont being organized from original states. Maine was part of Massachusetts, and Vermont was disputed territory between New York and New Hampshire. Then, much later, West Virginia added. So now, occupants of 16 states live in what were the original colonies. > > Arguably, the unexplored territories of Kentucky and Tennessee were included in the assumptions of Virginia and North Caroloina. I was about to point out that you forgot WV, KY and TN but then I previewed and caught your edit. But there was also a claim by Connecticut for land due west of that colony. It included parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/23 "2017-12-28T00:06:52Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > You sure you’re in the right thread? First post here was 2000, as were a bunch of posts after that. > > As for the record between first and second post, I expect it’s [this thrread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=4243&highlight=howard+hughes) (notice who pointed out the ellapsed time in post #3). I am talking the user **frokeefe** whose first post was Jun 6th 2003, and 2nd post was earlier today, when he opened up this zombie. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/24 "2017-12-28T00:29:25Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I was about to point out that you forgot WV, KY and TN but then I previewed and caught your edit. > > But there was also a claim by Connecticut for land due west of that colony. It included parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states. The Carolina Charter, consisting mainly of lines drawn on an imaginary map, included parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana. Since the Mississippi River was unknown at the time, the line went on and on, between the parallels of 31 and 36, to hypothetical claims to some of the California missions. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/25 "2017-12-28T01:19:14Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > I am talking the user **frokeefe** whose first post was Jun 6th 2003, and 2nd post was earlier today, when he opened up this zombie. Right. Usually comments here about length of time between posts have to do with how long the thread was dormant, so I naturally jumped to the conclusion that’s what you were talking about. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/26 "2017-12-28T04:42:02Z")
Wow. Interesting to see what I wrote back then. That was a younger, more patient me. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/27 "2017-12-28T05:51:40Z")
What’s most notable is that no one who posted originally eighteen years ago is Banned and so many of them are still active. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/28 "2017-12-28T06:16:17Z")
Also, remember - the French outside of the St. Lawrence were more interested in Fur trading (oh, and missionary work); as a result they explored deeply into the west. There’s a reason why there’s a Des Moines, De Troit, Illinois, Eau Claire, St. Louis, etc. Essentially, they travelled and claimed the whole central Mississippi valley and from there the area of Canada leading to Quebec. They just couldn’t hold it. the settlement of the war in 1763 they gave everything in North America east of the Mississippi to Britain. (They kept Louisiana and the western Mississippi valley, until they made a deal with the USA in 1803). It’s not like Britain was trying to screw over the colonies (not much), but the area over the Appalachians was sparsely settled and the French had wandered there and built forts and such as much as the English, so logically the areas associated with New France were open to interpretation where they belonged. I think the main reason Canada did not jump ship is they had no grievances compared to the Americans. New France was recently conquered, and so was governed (and used to being governed) with a heavy hand. They were not some uppity locals chomping at the bit to call their own shots in a state legislature. Similarly, Nova Scotia was still reeling from trying to sort out the large mix of French and the threat they posed to governance. They were not prime agricultural producers like some of the 13, so did not have the level of resentment against British Tariffs nor again, the longer history of calling their own shots in the legislature. So they did not harbour such resentments as would drive them to rebel. Plus, they would have realized they were a prime target for a French re-occupation if they got uppity and lost their protector. Upper Canada (Ontario now) was pretty much unsettled until the revolution. A prime source of settlers was Loyalists fleeing the colonies after the revolution. But yes, Benedict Arnold is famous during the American Revolution for having led the army that besieged Quebec in an attempt to add it to the revolt. They had a jolly time waiting in the snow all winter, only to bugger off when spring and an open resupply route from England arrived. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/29 "2017-12-28T06:47:37Z")
There was revolutionary sentiment in Nova Scotia, but the colonial elites were loyalist, and attacks by American privateers on Nova Scotian shipping alienated the population. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/30 "2018-01-02T17:31:22Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > BTW, there are still a lot of people in Eastern Ontario who put the letters UEL after their names: “United Empire Loyalist”… they are descended from people who opposed the Revolution and fled beforwe the victorious revolutionaries. A lot of New Brunswickers and Nova Scotians, as well. -Bookkeeper UEL 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/31 "2018-01-02T18:16:40Z")
French Catholics in Quebec didn’t exactly see eye to eye with New England Protestants for quite a long time before the revolution. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/32 "2018-01-02T21:46:55Z")
Especially since the Quebecers saw the Quebec Act as a guarantee of their language, culture, and legal rights, but the Americans saw it as one of the intolerable acts and listed it in the Declaration of Independence as one of their grievances against King George. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949/33 "2018-01-02T22:17:11Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Especially since the Quebecers saw the Quebec Act as a guarantee of their language, culture, and legal rights, but the Americans saw it as one of the intolerable acts and listed it in the Declaration of Independence as one of their grievances against King George. That’s because no one guaranteed the Americans’ language, cultural, and legal rights… OK, seriously, the real complaint there was probably that the English colonists were being restricted to the area east of the Appalachians, while the French in Quebec were going hither and yon all over the continent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/original-13-or-15-colonies/5949.md?page=1)