A freed slave with his family could choose to remain with his former master. Following the publication of the decree of September 26, 1896, on the abolition of slavery by Resident General Hippolyte Laroche, several personalities such as Prince Ramahatra, governor general of the Ambatomanga Military Circle, and Prime Minister Rasanjy expressed their views. The prince, in his speech of October 2, made no secret of his contempt for the joy of newly emancipated Andevo (Bakoly Domenichini-Ramiaramanana and Jean-Pierre Domenichini, "Aspects of Slavery under the Merina Monarchy According to Legislative and Regulatory Texts," Historical Review "Omaly sy Anio" No. 15, first semester 1982). However, the two study authors, while discussing the prince's attitude, did not fail to note a fact. According to them, it is not at all excluded that Ramahatra, cited in June 1896 as among those accused of fomenting a plot against France, "deliberately exaggerated and that his speech was part of a call to insurrection." As for Rasanjy, regarding the disorders resulting from the abolition of slavery, he emphasized in his circular of November 2 that these troubles could indeed show that the resident general had not foreseen everything in drafting his decree. This was particularly due to rumors circulating about the reaction of former masters who may have reached "the realization of the uselessness of slaves and would begin to drive away freed slaves who wished to remain with them." However, according to the Domenichini couple, no legislative or regulatory text indicates that these "rumors" had any effect on persons other than their authors. The latter are freed slaves who left their former masters willingly or by force. They spread rumors to frighten those who remain attached to their former owners, telling them that if they continue thus, they will be slaves forever. Finally, these troublemakers are declared guilty before the law and liable to a fine of ten oxen and ten piastres. The text of Rasanjy's circular of November 2, the study authors explain, highlights that Article 5 of the slavery abolition decree responds, at least, to public order concerns. And this, the Domenichinis indicate, while waiting for the rulers, under General Joseph Simon Gallieni, to exploit it to facilitate the establishment of new slavery. "A new slavery, instituted without the word but harder, by successive decrees relating to compulsory labor and labor regimentation." The first is Decree No. 69 on indigenous services, issued as early as October 21, 1896, which largely justifies the action of these freed slaves. Indeed, "these had to be aware of having kept a chance, however minimal, thanks to their non-registration under the monarchy, to escape this iniquity by disappearing into nature or by joining the insurgents." According to the two researchers, the analysis of Hippolyte Laroche's decree raises one of the essential points of slavery under the monarchy: its economic function. This does not appear clearly in the legislative or regulatory texts they studied. And even, they note, Rasanjy's circular of October 27, relating to rice field cultivation for second-season rice, mentions insufficient labor to explain why land is left fallow. But this does not allow one to conclude that "the abolition of slavery disorganized economic life and that Laroche's opponents were at least justified in their criticisms." In fact, when Rasanjy speaks of slaves, it is regarding the priority allocation to them of rice fields confiscated from insurgents. This simply returns to the problem of their subsistence after emancipation. Bakoly Domenichini-Ramiaramanana and Jean-Pierre Domenichini affirm that it seems equally difficult to justify Engels, for whom "the invention of slavery was the condition of immense social progress," as to make slavery a simple institution of prestige, "even if one can try to explain the development of such a phenomenon by the suppression of the slave trade." And they conclude: "The important question of slavery's place in the economic life of Merina society of the old regime remains virtually entirely open."