Who was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence.

The Second Continental Congress appointed a five-member Committee of Five to prepare a declaration explaining the colonies’ decision to separate from Great Britain. The committee included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Jefferson drafted the document, while the committee and Congress revised his text.

Congress debated and edited the declaration in Philadelphia during late June and early July 1776. The final document announced that the colonies considered themselves free and independent states and presented a list of grievances against King George III. Its language about equality and natural rights became influential, although the society that adopted it still permitted slavery and denied political rights to many people.

The declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776, but the signing process continued afterward. Most delegates signed the engrossed parchment on August 2, 1776. Jefferson’s authorship is therefore distinct from sole authorship: he wrote the initial draft, but the final text was a collective congressional document.