The American Declaration of Independence was drafted by a five-man committee in June 1776. Most of the writing was done by one of them. Who?
Jefferson, then 33, drafted the document at his lodgings in Philadelphia between 11 and 28 June 1776. The Committee of Five also included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston, but Jefferson did substantially all of the actual writing; Adams and Franklin contributed a small number of textual amendments. Congress made further changes — most significantly removing Jefferson's anti-slavery passage condemning the slave trade — before approving the final document on 4 July 1776. Washington was at the front commanding the Continental Army and was not in Philadelphia.
Read the full facts →The American Revolution was the political-military conflict between the thirteen British North American colonies and the British Crown between 1765 and 1783, producing the independence of the United States of America and the most consequential single political event of the late 18th century outside the French Revolution.
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