Story Highlights
- Historical event
- 11 June 1776
- The committee consisted of two future American presidents, one future Senator, and one United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
On this day in 1776, a committee of five members was elected to draft the American Declaration of Independence.
This Declaration is a key document in the history of the United States, and has also influenced many other independence movements worldwide.
The Committee of Five consisted of:
– John Adams (later U.S. President)
– Thomas Jefferson (later U.S. President)
– Benjamin Franklin (famous scientist and inventor)
– Roger Sherman (later U.S. Senator)
– Robert Livingston (later United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs).
Apparently, Thomas Jefferson had the biggest role in the actual writing of the Declaration.
Although he was a slave owner with about a hundred slaves, he incorporated into the Declaration a sentence that states that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence and it was made public in July in 1776.
However, a war broke out with Britain, in which the United States had to fight for their independence.
