IN 1776, how many were resident / men, women, youth, children / in the 13 colonies that would send Representatives to enact a "Declaration of Independence"?

 Historians / demographers /

specific experts of the era of

the American Revolution put the #

2.1 to 2.5 million persons (adults -

youngsters of all sorts)

Those counting the entire population

remind those us now alive that 

500, 000

of those 2 and 1/2 million were

of African descent (some who would

remain enslaved until Juneteenth 1865

and some who were free persons of color

due to their buying their freedom or 

the prior "owners" granting them 

emancipation).  twenty percent of

Americans in 1776 were either

under "servitude" or had been

granted freedom or had "run away". . .