[3] As a property-owning white adult male, Elam was legally permitted to participate in democratic processes in the U.S. state of Mississippi in the early Republic era, and as such, he seemingly ran for office in 1845, coming in third in a three-way election for Wilkinson County circuit clerk.

Ran away from the undersigned, near Murfreesborough, Tenn., on the 3d instant, 2 Negro Men, namely: JOE, a Mulatto, 23 years old, straight black hair, 6 feet 2 inches high, and weighs about 180 pounds; had on a suit of red jeans, cloth cap, and a pair of new brogans.

"[5]Elam reported that he had been burglarized and offered a reward for some non-human lost property in an advertisement placed in the Mississippi Free Trader in 1851.

"[6][a] STOLEN on the night of the 3d instant, my room at the Forks of the Road, near Natchez, was entered and the following property taken, viz: a small Calfskin POCKET BOOK, nearly new, containing a Spanish doubloon and a one dollar note on some one of the Tennessee banks; about eight dollars in silver, which was loose in my pocket; also, a plain Gold Lever Watch, with the letters "R. H. E." engraved on the back, made by James G. Bradley, Liverpool, No.

179, with a heavy Gold Vest Chain; also, a plain Silver Lever Hunting Watch, belonging to J. Q. Webb, besides various other small articles of less value.

[6]According to Frederic Bancroft in Slave-Trading in the Old South, Elam was one of the "best known" traders operating at the Forks of the Road slave market in Natchez, Mississippi in 1852–53.

[7] One of Elam's ads from this era was highlighted in Harriet Beecher Stowe's coverage of the interstate slave trade in A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin: "I have just returned to my stand, at the Forks of the Road, with fifty likely young NEGROES for sale.

Previously the property of Josiah Williams, it stood along the Gallatin Turnpike, and the Nashville and Louisville, and Edgefield and Kentucky Railroad ran through it.