FactSentinel

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, but he did not write it entirely alone, and the Continental Congress made significant changes before approving it. In June 1776, Congress appointed a Committee of Five to draft the document: Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson wrote the initial draft, but Adams and Franklin reviewed it and suggested changes before it was presented to Congress.

The strongest evidence comes from the surviving manuscripts. Jefferson's original draft, known as the "rough draft," shows edits in the handwriting of Adams and Franklin. Congress then debated the text from July 2 to July 4, 1776, and cut roughly a quarter of it. The most notable deletion was a passage blaming King George III for the slave trade, which delegates from South Carolina and Georgia opposed, and which some northern delegates also found problematic. Other wording was altered or tightened. Jefferson himself was frustrated by these revisions and later circulated copies showing his original language beside the final version.

A common misconception arises from Jefferson's title as the document's "author," which is accurate in the sense that he drafted it and shaped its language. However, the finished Declaration was a collective product, approved by Congress as a statement of the united colonies. Its ideas also drew on earlier writings, including George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights and Enlightenment philosophy.