Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

American Revolution *The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis* (at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781), oil on canvas by John Trumbull, completed in 1820; in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D.C. The painting captures the moment when major fighting during the American Revolution ended and the colonies achieved independence.

The Declaration of Independence was written primarily by Thomas Jefferson.12

In June 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a five-person committee—including Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin—to draft a formal statement justifying the separation of the American colonies from Great Britain. At the request of his fellow committee members, Jefferson prepared the first draft.321

While the committee and the Congress made several edits and revisions to his text, Jefferson is recognized as the principal author. At the time, however, the document was viewed as a collective effort by the entire Congress, and Jefferson was not widely known as its primary author until the 1790s.13