Milgram Experiment
The Milgram experiment was a study that was done to test the obedience to authority figures. It was done in a series of psychological tests that were performed by Stanley Milgram. In this experiment an actor was brought into a room and hooked up to a machine that supposedly gave electric shocks, although the machine actually did not do anything. Then a volunteer would be brought into a separate room and would ask memorization questions through a microphone to the actor. The volunteer was not aware that the person in the other room was an actor so when ever the actor would answer a question wrong, the volunteer was to administer what they thought was an electric shock, when really the actor would only pretend to be in pain. Every time the actor got a question wrong the voltage of the shocks went up.
This experiment relates to the book of negroes because it demonstrates how people listen to authority even though they are doing the wrong thing. In the experiment there was a case where every time the volunteer would hear the actor in fake pain, he would stop and say he would not carry on with the experiment. The researcher who was in the room with the volunteer (the authority figure), would simply just say that they must continue with the experiment, and they did. This is proof that the volunteer did not want to carry on but he did anyway only because the researcher said he must. Good evidence of how this connects with The Book of Negroes, is with the character Mamed. This is because Mamed works for a white plantation owner while he himself is black. He is an overseer of the slaves and is order to keep them inline by the plantation owner. He obviously does not enjoy hurting the slaves, as evidence when he befriends Aminata, but he continues to do what he is told simply because the owner is an authority figure.
