The Milgram Experiment was designed after World War I, to test how obedient people are to authority figures. The study tested (by fake electrical shock) showed how likely people were to commit 'crimes' based on what they were told to do, by someone whom they believed to be an authority figure. The study found that ordinary people have a natural obedience towards authority figures because of how people are raised to listen to their parents, grandparents, teachers, ext. Therefore they are more likely to commit an act against their own values when told/pressured to do so from an authority figure.
This experiment relates back to The Book of Nigroes because there are many people in the book who do what their told because someone from a higher power told them to do so. The first example we see in the text are the capturers. Are they really bad people? Why are they taking other people aways from their homes? Do they care what happens to them? The questions we may ask, could go on forever. In reality they could just be fallowing the orders they were giving, even if it goes against their own morals. This relates to the Milgram Experiment after World War I, to test if the Nazi's were truly guilty of their crimes or wether they were forced/pressured to go against their own values by an authority figure.
I think the Milgram Experiment is an eye opener for how humanity truly is, and how willing people are to act like monsters, but I also think there is a difference between the experiment, WWI, and the slave trade as portrayed in the Book of Negroes. In WWI, as in the slave trade, there was the possibility of suffering the same fate as the people you imprison if an authority figure caught you doing an act of kindness or showing empathy. The Milgram experiment doesn't threaten the volunteer's life or well being, and the volunteers simply assume the worst because that is how humanity is. Chekura is an adept example of suffering the consequences and outliving one's usefulness. He was thrown in the ship with the rest of the slaves after he'd served his purpose, and it may have been because his attachement to Aminata on their long walk had been noticed.
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