Thomas Jefferson wrote most of the first draft of the United States Declaration of Independence.
Congress appointed a Committee of Five on June 11, 1776, to prepare a public explanation of the colonies’ decision to separate from Great Britain. The committee included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman.
Jefferson produced the initial draft between June 11 and June 28. The other committee members and the Continental Congress revised the text before it was adopted on July 4. Jefferson was a skilled writer, but the final document was therefore a collaborative political work rather than an untouched personal manuscript.
Jefferson’s authorship is one of the best-known facts connected with America250. The Declaration’s language about rights and government later became influential well beyond the Revolutionary era, including in debates over citizenship, equality, and the meaning of American founding principles.