Thomas Jefferson wrote the principal draft of the United States Declaration of Independence.
The Second Continental Congress appointed a five-person drafting committee in June 1776. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Jefferson, then 33, produced the main draft, which the committee reviewed before submitting it to Congress.
Congress edited the document during late June and early July. It adopted the final Declaration on July 4, 1776, announcing that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as independent states. The document’s opening argument and statement of natural rights became among the best-known political prose in modern history.
Jefferson was the principal drafter, not the only contributor. Adams and Franklin advised him, and the full Congress revised the text. A common error is to credit Franklin or Adams as the author because both were prominent members of the drafting committee.