Jakub Szela (was born 14 July 1787, Smarżowa, in Galicia - died 21 April 1860, Dealul Ederii, in Bukovina, now Romania) was a Polish leader of a peasant uprising against the Polish gentry in Galicia in 1846; directed against manorial property and oppression (for example, the manorial prisons) and rising against serfdom; scores of manors were attacked and their inhabitants murdered.

He represented his village in an extended conflict with its unjust lord and was arrested and lashed several times.

During the 1846 rebellion, instigated by Vienna, Szela became the leader of the Galician peasants, destroyed a number of manors, and killed, among others, the family of his lord, though he is reported to have saved the children.

Szela tried to organize an all-Galician peasant uprising, with the main slogan of corvee refusal.

[1][2] He is also said to have received a medal from the Austrian government, an event reported as fact by Magosci et al.[3] but played down as only a "Polish rumor" by Wolff.