- This political cartoon (attributed to James Turner (silversmith) for Benjamin Franklin) originally appeared during the French and Indian War, but was recycled to encourage the American colonies to join the Albany Plan for Union. From The Pennsylvania gazette, 9 May 1754. Abbreviations used: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England. The practice of grouping the colonies east of New York (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut) together as “New England” has a history that goes back to the Dominion of New England, established in 1686, and continues informally through to today (eg, the New England Patriots). Delaware was not listed separately because it was comprised of three counties that were part of Pennsylvania, and did not gain independence from Philadelphia until after the Declaration of Independence was asserted. Prior to formal separation from Pennsylvania, Delaware was properly referred to as the “Lower Counties on Delaware”. The Province of Georgia was not originally included by Franklin (let alone other British colonies in North America) but was later added and can be see at the tip of the tail. Georgia, the youngest of what would come to be referred to as the “Thirteen Original Colonies”, had only been chartered in 1732 as a haven for those incarcerated in England’s debtors prisons, and its population was sparse.
