Civics question 78 of 128 65/20 set

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

Source: official USCIS question list for the 2025 version of the civics test. This site is independent and not affiliated with USCIS.

Background

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. He was thirty-three, a Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and worked under a committee assignment shared with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston, though the drafting was his. Congress then cut about a quarter of his text, including a passage denouncing the slave trade that several delegations refused to accept. The famous second paragraph asserts that all men are created equal and hold unalienable rights, and the bulk of what follows is a list of grievances against the king, meant to justify the break in the eyes of the world. Jefferson owned enslaved people while writing those words, a contradiction that abolitionists and later reformers quoted back at the country repeatedly.

This background section is written by US Citizenship Test Practice to explain the civics fact. It is not part of the USCIS question list, and the official answer above is the one to give at the interview.

Where this question sits

It is part of Colonial Period and Independence, inside the American History section of the test. It is also one of the 20 questions in the 65/20 set, so it is worth knowing well.

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