What was the name of the five-member group that prepared the Declaration of Independence draft?

The five-member group that prepared the Declaration of Independence draft was the Committee of Five.

The Second Continental Congress appointed the committee on June 11, 1776. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson produced the principal draft, while the other members reviewed and discussed it.

The committee presented its work to Congress, which debated and revised the text. This process matters because the Declaration was not simply a private essay by Jefferson; it became an official statement through congressional action.

The Committee of Five is sometimes confused with the Continental Congress itself or with colonial committees created during resistance to British policies. It was a temporary drafting group specifically assigned to prepare a declaration explaining independence. Its membership also explains why several famous founders are associated with the document even though Jefferson wrote the initial version.