Logic of Empire

Part of his Future History series, it originally appeared in Astounding Science Fiction (March 1941) and was collected in The Green Hills of Earth (and subsequently The Past Through Tomorrow).

Two well-off Earth men are arguing about whether there is slavery on Venus, and one of them gets shanghaied there, or so he believes; they later find out that they have bet one another about the topic, gotten drunk, and signed on.

Even the plantation owner who owns the hero is portrayed as a struggling and failing small businessman, whose main motivation is to secure a livelihood for his daughter.

There is in the story a casual reference to the rise of the fanatic preacher Nehemiah Scudder, who would eventually be elected president and establish a theocratic dictatorship which would rule the US for several generations.

As an aside, Heinlein himself said he felt that 3 books would need to be devoted to Scudder to tell the story fully and he couldn’t stand the guy enough to spend that much time with him.