 These were old stock "Yankee" immigrants, meaning they were descended from the English Puritans who settled New England in the 1600s.The completion of the Erie Canal caused a surge in New England immigration to what was then the Northwest Territory.The end of the Black Hawk War led to an additional surge of immigration, once again coming almost exclusively from the six New England states as a result of overpopulation combined with land shortages in that region.