Patriots (also known as Revolutionaries, Continentals, Rebels, or Whigs) were colonists in the Thirteen Colonies who opposed the Kingdom of Great Britain's control and governance during the colonial era and supported and helped launch the American Revolution that ultimately established American independence. Patriot politicians led colonial opposition to British policies regarding the American colonies, eventually building support for the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

After the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, many patriots assimilated into the Continental Army, which was commanded by George Washington and which ultimately secured victory against the British Army, leading the British to end their involvement in the war and acknowledge the sovereign independence of the colonies, reflected in the Treaty of Paris, which led to the establishment of the United States in 1783.

The patriots were inspired by English and American republican ideology that was part of the Age of Enlightenment, and rejected monarchy and aristocracy and supported individual liberty and natural rights and legal rights. Prominent patriot political theorists, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Thomas Paine, spearheaded the American Enlightenment, which was in turn inspired by European thinkers such as Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Though slavery existed in all of the Thirteen Colonies prior to the American Revolution, the issue divided patriots, with some supporting its abolition while others espoused proslavery thought.

The patriots included members of every social and ethnic group in the colonies, though support for the patriot cause was strongest in the New England Colonies and weakest in the Southern Colonies. The American Revolution divided the colonial population into three groups: patriots, who supported the end of British rule; loyalists, who supported Britain's continued control over the colonies; and those who remained neutral. African Americans who supported the patriots were known as Black Patriots, with their counterparts on the British side being referred to as Black Loyalists.

The critics of British policy towards the Thirteen Colonies called themselves "Whigs" after 1768, identifying with members of the British Whig party who favored similar colonial policies.^{[citation needed]} Samuel Johnson writes that, at the time, the word "patriot" had a negative connotation and was used as a negative epithet for "a factious disturber of the government".

Prior to the American Revolution, colonists who supported British authority called themselves Tories or royalists, identifying with the political philosophy of traditionalist conservatism as it existed in Great Britain. During the American Revolution, these persons became known primarily as Loyalists. Afterward, some 15% of Loyalists emigrated north to the remaining British territories in the Canadas. There, they called themselves the United Empire Loyalists. 85% of the Loyalists decided to stay in the new United States and were granted American citizenship.

Prior to the formal beginning of the American Revolution, many patriots were active in groups including the Sons of Liberty. The most prominent patriot leaders are referred to today as the Founding Fathers, who are generally defined as the 56 men who, as delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, signed the Declaration of Independence.

Patriots included a cross-section of the population of the Thirteen Colonies and came from varying backgrounds. Roughly 40 to 45 percent of the white population in the Thirteen Colonies supported the patriots' cause, between 15 and 20 percent supported the Loyalists, and the remainder were neutral or kept a low profile regarding their loyalties. The great majority of Loyalists remained in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution; a minority, however, fled the nation for Canada, Great Britain, Florida, or the West Indies.