Thomas Jefferson was the principal drafter of the United States Declaration of Independence.
The Second Continental Congress appointed a five-member Committee of Five to prepare a declaration. The committee included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Jefferson wrote the initial draft, which the committee reviewed before Congress debated and revised it.
Jefferson was selected partly because of his reputation as a strong writer and because Virginia was an influential colony. His draft drew on political ideas about natural rights, government by consent, and the right of a people to change an abusive government.
Jefferson was not the sole author of the final text. Congress made substantial edits, including removing a passage criticizing the slave trade. The final document therefore reflects both Jefferson’s draft and the collective decisions of the Continental Congress.