Thomas Jefferson was the principal drafter of the United States Declaration of Independence.
Congress appointed the Committee of Five on June 11, 1776, to prepare a statement explaining independence. The committee selected Jefferson to write the initial draft because of his reputation as a strong writer and political thinker. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston served with him.
Jefferson drafted the document largely between June 11 and June 28. The committee reviewed it, and the full Congress made substantial edits before adoption. This means Jefferson wrote the principal draft, but the final Declaration was a collective congressional document rather than an unchanged solo manuscript.
Jefferson later became the third president of the United States. His original rough draft, containing revisions by other committee members and Congress, survives at the Library of Congress.