Quote 1
"I don't want them to kill no hog," she said. "I want a man to go to that chair, on his own two feet." (2.29)
Miss Emma surely doesn't really think that Jefferson is a hog. She loves him and thinks of him as her dear boy. However, she knows that being a man has to do with the way that society sees Jefferson, and how he sees himself. That's what she wants to change.
Quote 2
"The public defender called him a hog, and she wants me to make him a man. Within the next few weeks, maybe a month, whatever the law allows—make him a man." (5.47)
The fact that Miss Emma chooses Grant to be the one to turn Jefferson, bibbidi-bobbidi-boo style, into a man, shows the power she believes a teacher has. She raised Jefferson and didn't manage to turn him into a man, but she is sure that the professor can do so.
Quote 3
"Tell him what I done done for this family, Mr. Henri. Tell him to ask his wife all I done done for this family over the years." (3.69)
Miss Emma decides to use the only influence she has with a powerful white family to try to help her godson. She reminds them of all of the years that she worked cooking and taking care of their house, and appeals to their sense of justice to get them to help her.