Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

• A. Thomas Jefferson
• B. George Washington
• C. Benjamin Franklin
• D. John Adams

Answer: (A)

Thomas Jefferson wrote the draft of the Declaration of Independence. In June 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a Committee of Five to draft a statement justifying independence. Jefferson, a delegate from Virginia, was chosen to write the draft and produced a document that laid out Enlightenment ideas about natural rights and listed the colonies' grievances against King George III. The committee and Congress refined the text, but Jefferson's draft is the foundation of the final declaration. The other figures listed—George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams—were prominent leaders who contributed to the broader effort and to the drafting process, but the actual writing of the declaration was Jefferson's.