Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, central to the history celebrated by America250.
In June 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed a five-member drafting committee consisting of Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. The committee selected Jefferson to write the document because of his reputation as a strong writer and his earlier political work.
Jefferson produced a draft in a rented house in Philadelphia. Adams and Franklin suggested changes, and Congress debated and edited the text before adopting it on July 4, 1776. Jefferson’s draft therefore was not the final wording in every detail, but he remains recognized as its principal author.
A common mix-up is calling Jefferson the sole author. The Declaration emerged through committee work and congressional revision, while its famous opening ideas expressed broader Enlightenment and colonial political traditions. Jefferson later served as the third president of the United States.