Thomas Jefferson wrote the principal draft of the Declaration of Independence.
Congress appointed Jefferson to the five-member Committee of Five on June 11, 1776. The committee included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Although Adams was a leading supporter of independence, he persuaded the committee to have Jefferson write the first draft.
Jefferson largely wrote the document between June 11 and June 28, 1776, while staying in Philadelphia. Adams and Franklin reviewed the draft, and Congress later edited it during debate. The final version was therefore a collaborative congressional document, even though Jefferson is recognized as its principal author.
Jefferson was 33 years old and serving as a delegate from Virginia. His language drew on Enlightenment ideas and earlier rights documents, including the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Congress removed roughly a fourth of Jefferson’s original draft, including passages criticizing the slave trade. That editing history explains why “principal author” is more precise than calling Jefferson the sole writer.