Thomas Jefferson wrote most of the Declaration of Independence.
Congress selected Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston for the Committee of Five that prepared a declaration. Jefferson drafted the document, and the other committee members and Congress reviewed, edited, and approved the wording. The final text therefore reflects congressional action, not Jefferson’s work alone.
Jefferson was a Virginia delegate who was thirty-three years old in 1776. His draft drew on Enlightenment ideas about natural rights and government, while Congress removed or changed several passages before adoption. One deleted section criticized the transatlantic slave trade, but Congress did not retain it in the final text.
John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were influential members of the drafting committee, which often leads to confusion about authorship. George Washington was commander in chief of the Continental Army and did not write the Declaration. Jefferson later served as the third president of the United States, but his presidency came decades after the document’s creation.