The Declaration of Independence: The Birth of Wite-Out

Long before the days of computers, Thomas Jefferson held his breath, wondering where he would mess up next on the Declaration of Independence.

“Thomas, you forgot the ‘w’ in ‘wholesome’ again.”

-Benjamin Franklin

The writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence was well-documented as many knew that this was a historic period of time. Because of that, many of the discarded drafts were kept and have surfaced in recent years.

Besides the obvious problems with cramping in the forearm and wrist, Jefferson became frustrated because of how many times he had to rewrite the Declaration. The many rewrites were caused by occasional rewording, misspellings, coffee stains, and Joseph Priestley (a friend of Ben Franklin’s who often dropped by) shaking Jefferson’s writing desk for a laugh.

Along the way, Jefferson made many mistakes. One of the funniest being that America was claiming independence from “England and the tyrant, King Gorge.”

The largest blunder was the second to last rewrite of the document. Jefferson presented the document to the Second Continental Congress, and all of the men signed it. It was not until the last man signed it that John Adams noticed that Jefferson had written June 4th instead of July 4th.

Thomas Jefferson’s 1,328 word blunder.

In the end, America gained its independence, and Thomas Jefferson began work toward creating Wite-Out.

Author’s Note: Read more about Joseph Priestley and his pranks involving Benjamin Franklin!