Thomas Jefferson didn’t want to write the Declaration of Independence. But he did.
Pictured below are the first and fourth (final) pages of his rough draft. It includes changes that Benjamin Franklin and John Adams told him verbally. Then the document was given to the Congress. Jefferson said nothing as Congress cut about one-fourth of his words, including a part about slavery. Jefferson was a slaveholder from the South. But he was against the slave trade, which he blamed on King George. Other Southern representatives made sure that part was cut out.
