Yale University Psychologist Stanley Milgram began conducting an experiment shortly after the trials of Nazis following world war two. His aim was to test the lengths people went to under another's authority. He had an enforcer, speaking over a speakerphone, a teacher, who was a volunteer, and a learner, who was a hired actor. The teacher would be given a list of words to teach to the learner, a person who was acting the entire time in a different room, of which they were unaware of. For every wrong answer, the teacher would give the learner a shock, progressing up the voltage scale after each wrong answer. On occasion, the actor would plead with the teacher, and tell them of heart conditions, but a surprisingly high number of test subjects went to a fatal voltage, and a surprisingly low number of teachers outright refused to continue, even after being prompted. The enforcers did not say that the teachers couldn't leave the room to check on the learner, and teachers asked for permission to do so, without getting an answer.
The experiment correlates strongly with the Book of Negroes, because we come across several examples of Negroes and Africans who comply with a higher authority, for just a little bit of money, or comfort, and so on. Chekura is an example of an African working for the slave traders to herd slaves to the coast of Africa. Mamed is also an example of a Negro working for a white slave trader, for the promise of books, a bigger hut, and the lack of manual labor.
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