Who drafted the first version of the United States Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson drafted the first version of the United States Declaration of Independence.

In June 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five to prepare a declaration. The committee included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson, a Virginia delegate and a skilled political writer, produced the main draft.

The other committee members reviewed and revised Jefferson’s work before submitting it to Congress. Congress then debated, edited, and shortened the text, making the final document a product of collective action rather than Jefferson’s untouched manuscript. The most substantial changes removed or altered several passages, including criticism of the slave trade.

Jefferson later became the third president of the United States, but his role in drafting the Declaration predates his presidency. He was 33 years old in 1776. The document’s famous philosophical language helped make him its best-known author.