Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Independence.
Congress appointed Jefferson to the five-member drafting committee alongside John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Although the committee formally presented the work, Jefferson wrote most of the first draft between June 11 and June 28, 1776.
The committee reviewed his draft before submitting it to Congress. Delegates then edited the text, removing roughly a fourth of the original wording and changing several passages before adoption. Calling Jefferson the primary author does not mean he wrote the final document entirely alone.
Jefferson was 33 years old when he drafted the Declaration. His language, especially the statement that “all men are created equal,” later became one of the best-known expressions of American political ideals, even as the new nation continued to exclude many people from political rights.