Starting the Research Journey
Got curious about US history while watching a documentary last night. Realized I couldn’t name all 13 original colonies off the top of my head. Embarrassing! Decided to fix that gap first thing this morning. Grabbed coffee, opened my laptop, and dove straight into chaos.
The Frustrating Search
Typed “13 colonies” into Google – boom! Overwhelmed instantly. Too many websites, dates all scrambled, names spelled differently everywhere. Found a fancy .edu site with academic jargon. My brain glazed over after two paragraphs. Closed that tab hard. Needed something human-friendly.
Tried a history YouTube channel instead. Guy talked SO fast, like a auctioneer on espresso. Paused every 3 seconds to scribble notes:
- Jamestown = first permanent? (1607)
- Georgia = baby colony (1732)
- New York = stolen from Dutch???
Organizing the Mess
Spreadsheet time! Made three columns: Colony Name, Founding Year, Weird Fact. Dug deeper. Realized grouping them helped:
- New England Colonies: Mostly stubborn Puritans freezing their butts off
- Middle Colonies: Breadbasket + Quakers being chill
- Southern Colonies: Hot, humid, and obsessed with cash crops
Cross-checked dates across 5 sites. Massachusetts was tricky – Plymouth (1620) vs. Bay Colony (1630). Threw my hands up. Settled on “early 1600s” for simplicity. Made a cheesy mnemonic: “Never Mind Mary’s New Hamster Cooks Pasta Really Delightfully” (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware, Georgia). Sounded dumb but stuck in my head.
The “Aha!” Moment
Stumbled on a simple infographic showing the colonies hugging the east coast. Lightbulb moment! Realized they clustered geographically for survival/trade. Memorized the list using regional chunks:
- North: NH, MA, CT, RI
- Middle: NY, NJ, PA, DE
- South: MD, VA, NC, SC, GA
Tested myself 10 minutes later. Forgot Delaware AGAIN. Grrr! Rewrote it 20 times. Burned it into my eyeballs.
Mission Accomplished (Mostly)
Can now rattle ’em off: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. TL;DR? British wanted cash, settlers wanted freedom/land, everybody argued constantly. Still fuzzy on exact dates? YEP. But who cares? I finally get the big picture. Passed the trivia test to myself. Time for more coffee.
