Thomas Jefferson wrote the initial draft of the Declaration of Independence, the document whose 1776 adoption America250 commemorates. Congress appointed Jefferson to a five-member drafting committee on June 11, 1776.
The committee also included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Adams helped persuade the committee to assign the writing to Jefferson, who produced the main draft between June 11 and June 28. The committee reviewed it before presenting it to Congress.
Jefferson’s draft was not accepted unchanged. Congress shortened the text, revised its wording, and removed several passages, including a paragraph criticizing the transatlantic slave trade. Jefferson therefore deserves credit as the principal drafter, but the final Declaration was a product of committee review and congressional debate rather than one person’s untouched manuscript.