This week on Dave Does History, we step backward before we move forward. Long before July of 1776, long before Jefferson put pen to parchment, there was another moment when ordinary people decided that silence was no longer an option. They wrote their grievances down and dared the system to listen.

In this episode of Liberty 250, we travel to England in December of 1640, to the Root and Branch Petition, a document most Americans have never heard of but whose fingerprints are all over the Declaration of Independence. It is the story of what happens when institutions stop working, when courts enforce power instead of restraining it, and when people discover that gentle correction has failed.

This is not a tale of riots or revolutions, at least not at first. It is about legitimacy, authority, and the dangerous moment when citizens conclude that the structure itself is broken. Understanding that moment helps us understand our own founding, and why Americans learned to list their grievances and demand change in writing.