Who wrote the main draft of the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson wrote the main draft of the Declaration of Independence.

In June 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed a Committee of Five to prepare a statement explaining the colonies’ decision to separate from Britain. The committee included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Jefferson, then 33, produced the principal draft.

The committee and Congress revised his work, removing or changing passages before adopting the document on July 4, 1776. One deleted section criticized the transatlantic slave trade, while other edits softened Jefferson’s language about the British king. The final text therefore reflects congressional revision rather than one writer’s untouched manuscript.

Jefferson later became the third president of the United States and served from 1801 to 1809. His authorship of the Declaration is famous, but the document was a collective act of Congress, and the other committee members helped shape its final presentation.