Who drafted the original text of the United States Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson drafted the original text of the United States Declaration of Independence.

On June 11, 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five to prepare a declaration. Its members were Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The committee selected Jefferson to write the initial draft.

Jefferson composed the draft in June 1776, drawing on ideas about natural rights and government that were circulating in Enlightenment political thought. The committee reviewed it, and Congress made substantial edits before approving the final wording. Jefferson therefore wrote the principal draft, but the Declaration was a collective congressional document.

A common mix-up is to credit Jefferson as the sole author of the final version. He was the principal drafter, while Adams and Franklin advised him and Congress debated and revised the text. The document ultimately became the central symbol of the independence commemorated by America250.