Thomas Jefferson largely wrote the original draft of the United States Declaration of Independence for the Committee of Five.
Congress appointed the committee on June 11, 1776. Its members were Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The committee’s task was to prepare a statement explaining why the colonies sought separation from Great Britain.
Jefferson drafted the document in Philadelphia between June 11 and June 28. The other committee members reviewed the draft, and Congress debated and revised it before approving the final text on July 4. Jefferson was a young Virginia delegate and had already gained a reputation as a forceful writer.
The committee’s role is sometimes simplified into the idea that Jefferson wrote the entire Declaration alone. In fact, the document emerged through committee review and congressional editing. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston were important collaborators, even though Jefferson produced the principal draft.