Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson was a 33-year-old Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress when Congress appointed him to the Committee of Five. The committee also included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston.
Jefferson produced the main draft in June 1776. He drew on Enlightenment ideas about natural rights and government, while Congress debated and revised the wording before approving the final document on July 4. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin reviewed the draft before it reached the full Congress.
Calling Jefferson the primary author does not mean he wrote the document entirely alone or that the final text was unchanged. Congress removed or altered passages during its debates, including a section criticizing the transatlantic slave trade. Jefferson later preserved his reputation as the document’s principal writer, while the committee and Congress shaped the version that became authoritative.