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

Question

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

GPT 3.5 · Answer

The main idea of this excerpt is to illustrate the economic dependency of the South on other regions for essential resources, highlighting the lack of industrial development in the South at that time.