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The Big Runaway was a mass evacuation in June and July 1778 of settlers from the frontier areas of what is now north central Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War. A major campaign by Loyalists and Native Americans allied with the British devastated the small communities on the northern and western branches of the Susquehanna River, prompting local militia leaders to order the evacuation. Most of the settlers relocated to Fort Augusta at modern-day Sunbury at the confluence of the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna River, while their abandoned houses and farms were all burnt. Some settlers returned soon after, but the attacks were renewed the following year, leading to a second evacuation known as The Little Runaway. These attacks on the Pennsylvania frontier led to retaliatory scorched earth tactics by the American army against the Native Americans, including Sullivan's Expedition, which destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages. ==Background== In 1768 the Colony of Pennsylvania and the Iroquois Confederacy signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, in which the boundary between colonial and Iroquois lands was adjusted in the colony's favor in exchange for some financial considerations and other guarantees. Settlers soon began arriving in the area (known as the "New Purchase") and increased settlements along the West Branch of the Susquehanna helped lead to the formation of Northumberland County in 1772. The settlements along the river were in what are now parts of Northumberland, Union, Lycoming, and Clinton Counties. The New Purchase territory extended as far west as "Tiadaghton Creek". The identity of this creek was disputed, with the colonists claiming it was Pine Creek (further west, giving them more territory), while the Iroquois claimed it was Lycoming Creek (further east). The colonial government recognized Lycoming Creek as the boundary, so settlements made to its west violated the treaty. Despite this, there were settlers west of Lycoming Creek and west of Pine Creek about to modern-day Lock Haven. Because they fell outside the colony's bounds, the settlers in this area received no protection or government from colony, so they formed their own system of self-rule, known as the Fair Play system. When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, most of the settlers in that area were favored independence from Great Britain and supported the Patriot cause. About 75 soldiers from the territory that became Lycoming County served in the Continental Army, but the West Branch of the Susquehanna valley soon became a front in the war as well. According to tradition, the Fair Play Men made their own Declaration of Independence from Britain at the mouth of Pine Creek on July 4, 1776, unaware of the Continental Congress' Declaration.〔 There had always been tensions between the settlers and natives, with some attacks, especially in the "Fair Play" area. This became more serious in the winter of 1777–78, when two settlers were killed by Native Americans in separate incidents, and two Native Americans in a party of nine were killed by Colonel John Antes and his men in a skirmish after. Later a party of Native American raiders who had plundered along Buffalo Creek, near Lewisburg in Union County were stopped near modern Jersey Shore in Lycoming County and their booty was recovered.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Big Runaway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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