"The grave [in the South] was dug through solid marble, but the marble headstone came from Vermont. It was in a pine wilderness but the pine coffin came from Cincinnati. An iron mountain overshadowed it but the coffin nails and the screws and the shovel came from Pittsburgh.

Question

A hickory grove grew nearby.
but the pick and shovel handles came from New York.... That country, so rich in underdeveloped resources, furnished nothing for the funeral except the corpse and the hole in the ground."
- Henry Grady, Speech to the Bay Street Club, Boston, 1889. What is the main idea of this excerpt

Answer 1

The main idea of this excerpt is to highlight the disparities and contradictions between the natural resources and economic development of the South and the North in the late 19th century.