Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, the document whose adoption is commemorated during America’s 250th anniversary.
The Second Continental Congress appointed Jefferson to a five-member drafting committee on June 11, 1776. The committee also included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston, but Jefferson produced the main draft. He wrote it in Philadelphia while staying in a rented house near the State House.
Congress debated and revised the document between June 28 and July 4, 1776. It adopted the final text on July 4, although most delegates signed the engrossed parchment on August 2. Jefferson’s draft drew on Enlightenment ideas and earlier colonial and state arguments about natural rights and representative government.
A common mix-up is crediting Jefferson with sole authorship. He was the principal drafter, but the text was edited by the committee and Congress. Adams and Franklin also made important changes before adoption.