Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. lice, fleas, any bodily infestation.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1840		Flash Mirror 4: The Take In [...] Here, single men, with or without character, can have a separate bed [...] No charge for the live stock they carry away with them.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1863		Moulton letter in Drickamer Fort Lyon to Harper’s Ferry (1987) 127: A constant supply of the ‘live stock,’ for they are imperishable. [...] Plenty of ‘body guards’.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 45: Live Stock, annoying insects found on the unclean.
1914		B.J. Brookes diary 9 Dec. 🌐 On the march back [...] the men realise that they are ‘chatty’ or ‘crumby.’ [...] once started it is almost impossible to get rid of these objectionable livestock.
1935		S. Kingsley Dead End Act I: drina: You can’t go around with a head full of live stock. tommy: I ain’t got no bugs.

2. (US) slaves.

1842		Buckingham Slave States I 454: Negro slaves which sold formerly at 1,000 dollars, now sell for 500 dollars. There was not so much depreciation in the value of the ‘live stock,’ as these were called, as in the land [DA].
1852		H.B. Stowe Uncle Tom 12: The trader waked up bright and early, and came out to see to his live stock. It was now his turn to look about in perplexity. ‘Where alive is that gal?’ he said to Tom.

3. (US) women as objects of sexual interest, or prostitutes [play on cattle n. (1)].

1927

‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 454: Live stock, Prostitutes in a crowded house.