Thomas Jefferson wrote the initial draft of the United States Declaration of Independence for the Committee of Five.
Congress appointed the five-member committee on June 11, 1776. Its members were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. The group was responsible for preparing a statement explaining why the colonies sought separation from Great Britain.
Jefferson was chosen to write the first draft, although John Adams had strongly supported independence and later helped shape the document. Jefferson drafted the text between June 11 and June 28, after which Congress debated and edited it. The final document was therefore a collaborative political work, not simply an unchanged personal manuscript.
The committee’s membership also represented several colonies and influential political viewpoints. Congress removed or revised portions during debate, including passages concerning slavery and the slave trade. The resulting text was approved on July 4, 1776, and became the central written statement of the independence movement.