MS Mo 374 Elbert Seal - Bootlegging Cattle

An episode of the Mississippi Moments Podcast podcast, hosted by Center for Oral History & Cultural Heritage - Univ. Southern Miss, titled "MS Mo 374 Elbert Seal - Bootlegging Cattle" was published on January 13, 2014 and runs 4 minutes.

January 13, 2014 ·4m · Mississippi Moments Podcast

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Episode Description

Elbert Seal was born in 1892 in Harrison County. He recounts how his mother began homesteading land in Carnes, Mississippi after the death of his father. After serving in World War I, Seal felt restless back on the family farm. He recalls how he and his cousin went to Kansas for a while to help harvest wheat.

In the early 1900s, several Southern states made it illegal to transport cattle across state lines in an effort to eradicate cow ticks. Seal describes how they would purchase herds of cattle in Alabama and “bootleg” them across the state to sell in New Orleans.

Elbert Seal passed away in August of 1974.