subject: Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? [print this page] Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
Most people assume the declaration of independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, and he was actually one of the major participants. But there is more to this story, as you're about to find out after reading this article.
Who wrote the declaration of independence?
The events that would lead to the declaration of independence started in the second half of the XVIII century. The freedom of American colonists had been severely limited by yet another set of unreasonable laws approved by the English Parliament. Reacting to this pressure, several colonial delegates joined together to form the First Continental Congress. They complained next to King George III, but it was of no avail. However, the seed sof change had been planted.
It was in june 1776 the Second Continental Congress united, this time around with a different agenda: to declare America's independence. This group of brave souls was about to revel and cast off their allegiance to the old world. At this point, a document was required to formalize the process. To write such document, a groupo of talented individuals joined together. The were called the "Declaration Committee"
Who was part of de declaration committee?
There were five men appointed to write the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. They were Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, John Adams, Robert Livingston and Thomas Jefferson... the latter who was asked to actually sit down and write the document. It doesn't mean he actually wrote the Declaration of Independence, though... before it was approved there were many revisions and some important changes.
For example, in the early versions of the document, Jefferson referred to the readers as "fellow subjects", which would later be changed to "fellow citizens"... a correction that can still be noticed in the original document, if you look closely the word "subjects" has been erased and replaced with "citizens". This may seem a bit irrelevant to the subject matter, but it's also a crucial detail... after all the whole point of the declaration of independence was severing bonds with the English royalty - meaning the people would no longer be subjects.
This is just an example of one of the changes that would be effected on the original document written by Jefferson. Some of these change involved just rephrasing some of his sentences, but other changes were actually significant and drasctic.
