Jakub Szela (was born 14 July 1787,

Smarżowa Smarżowa is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Brzostek, within Dębica County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Brzostek, south of Dębica, and west of the regional capital ...

, in Galicia - died 21 April 1860, Dealul Ederii, in

Bukovina Bukovinagerman: Bukowina or ; hu, Bukovina; pl, Bukowina; ro, Bucovina; uk, Буковина, ; see also other languages. is a historical region, variously described as part of either Central or Eastern Europe (or both).Klaus Peter BergerT ...

, now

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

) 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 Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...

; scores of manors were attacked and their inhabitants murdered. Galician, mainly Polish, peasants killed ca. 1000 noblemen and destroyed ca. 500 manors in 1846. 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. The rebellious villages were pacified by the Austrian Army. After pacification of the rebellious villages by the Austrian Army, Szela was briefly arrested, and then resettled to

, where he was given a land grant by the Austrian government. He is also said to have received a medal from the Austrian government, an event reported as fact by Magosci et al. but played down as only a "Polish rumor" by Wolff. Szela was portrayed sympathetically by

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach Countess Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach ( cs, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbachová, german: link=no, Marie Freifrau von Ebner-Eschenbach; 13 September 183012 March 1916) was an Austrian writer. Noted for her psychological novels, she is regarded as one of t ...

, a Czech-born Austrian writer who had serfs before 1848, in her short story “Jakob Szela” in ''Dorf- und Schlossgeschichten'' (1883). The massacre of the gentry in 1846 was the historical memory that haunted

Stanisław Wyspiański Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (; 15 January 1869 – 28 November 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created a series of symbolic, national dramas within ...

's play '' The Wedding''. He was also featured in a recent Monika Strzępka and Paweł Demirski’s play “In the Name of Jakub S.”.

References

, History of Poland, 1968 * T. Simons Jr. The Peasant Revolt of 1846 in Galicia. nRecent Polish Historiography * Tomasz Szubert, Kilka faktów z życia Jakuba Szeli everal Facts from the Live of Jakub Szela nKwartalnik Historyczny 120, 2013, 3, 485-531; open access:https://www.academia.edu/40750414/Kilka_fakt%C3%B3w_z_%C5%BCycia_Jakuba_Szeli_Several_Facts_from_the_Live_of_Jakob_Szela_ * Tomasz Szubert, Jak(ó)b Szela (14) 15 lipca 1787 - 21 kwietnia 1860, Ed. Wydawnictwo DiG, Warszawa 2014 ISBN 978–83–7181–851–6 ; open access: https://www.academia.edu/44024456/Jak_%C3%B3_b_Szela_14_15_lipca_1787_21_kwietnia_1860_FRAGMENTY {{DEFAULTSORT:Szela, Jakub 1787 births 1860 deaths People from Dębica County Polish revolutionaries People of the Revolutions of 1848 Polish farmers Austrian farmers Serfs Polish rebels

References

Further reading