What was the five-member group that drafted the 1776 Declaration of Independence called?

The five-member group that drafted the 1776 Declaration of Independence was called the Committee of Five.

The Second Continental Congress appointed the committee on June 11, 1776, after deciding that a formal declaration should explain the colonies’ break with Great Britain. Its members were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman.

Jefferson wrote the principal draft, but the committee discussed and reviewed the text before presenting it to Congress on June 28. Congress then debated and edited the document, removing passages and changing wording before approving the final version on July 4.

The Committee of Five was not a permanent government body. It was a temporary congressional committee created for a specific drafting task. Its membership also explains why credit for the Declaration belongs both to Jefferson as principal writer and to the committee and Congress as collaborators.