Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, a document highlighted by America250. He drafted the document in 1776 while serving as a delegate from Virginia in the Second Continental Congress.
Congress appointed Jefferson to a five-member drafting committee with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Although the committee was collective, Jefferson wrote the principal draft, which Adams and Franklin reviewed before it went to Congress.
Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, 1776, after revising Jefferson’s text. Jefferson later became the third president of the United States, while Adams became the second. A common mix-up is crediting Franklin or Adams as the sole author; both influenced the document, but Jefferson was its primary author.