Children of the Night: Bicycle Messengers in Washington, D.C., 1880–1920

Abstract: Children delivered packages as bicycle messengers throughout the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In no city was this more predominant than in Washington, D.C. There, due to a lack of local political control, children worked in a relatively unregulated labor environment. Often as independent contractors, child messengers in Washington experienced dangerous working conditions, made very little money, and were exposed to vice. Like other child laborers of this era, Progressive Era reformers turned their attention to child couriers in the District. Organizations like the National Child Labor Committee, in their effort to work on behalf of child welfare, placed the protection of childhood innocence at the center of their agenda. In the process, they centered the protection of white children in the the District. Washington, D.C., with its unique local political structure and its heavy reliance upon bicycle messengers at the turn of the twentieth century, provides a unique window into this particular aspect of child labor history.