Which five-member group prepared the draft of the Declaration of Independence honored by America250?

The Committee of Five prepared the draft of the Declaration of Independence.

The 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 wrote the principal draft, and the committee presented it to Congress on June 28. Congress then debated and edited the text before adopting it on July 4, 1776.

The committee’s name can be confused with other revolutionary bodies. Committees of Correspondence helped coordinate colonial resistance before independence, while local Committees of Safety handled revolutionary administration. The Committee of Five had the specific assignment of drafting a declaration explaining the colonies’ decision to separate from Great Britain.