you must not take my arm; you are a fellow. True, said I. I forgot; and you must not help me over puddless, as you did just now,
Referring to how she was going to go outside derssed as a man. It is not socially acceptable for a man to be arm in arm with another man. Mr. Fern was also not allowed to treat her like a lady. He should not help her over puddles and such. When they are on their walk. Fanny also realizes that suits are much nicer to wear than a dress or skirt in the rain.
And ain't I a woman?
Sojorner is using this phrase repeatedly because she is emphasizing the fact that she is a woman. This is important because she said women can change the world, and she shows she is capable of being a part of that change. Also, she is saying this because she is stressing the fact that she is not treated in the same manner as other women of her time.
sold into slavery
This is referring to the law that children have to follow the condition of their mother. Since Truth was a slave, most all 13 of her children were sold into slavery.
Nobody ever helped me into carriages
Referring to how people (men) overlook African American women. Men would help a white woman into a carriage, over a mud puddle, or give her the best place, but not Sojourner Truth. This speaks strongly because it opens the eyes of women to the fact that not all women are treated the same even if someone is generalizing all women to include African American women.
first woman God ever made
Referring to Eve. This is significant because she is saying that since the first woman created was able to do something so huge, "Turn the world upside down all alone." Women now should be able to do something big as well, becuase they are just as stong as men.
When I came out of prison — for some one interfered, and paid that tax — I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the common, such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a tottering and gray-headed man; and yet a change had to my eyes come over the scene — the town, and State, and country — greater than any that mere time could effect.
Although not stated here, it is most likely that Emmer paid Thoreau's taxes, and bailed him out of prison. In this passage, he refers to the fact that he did not go to jail young and emerge as an old gray-headed man, so he did not see any great changes. But, he says that he became more aware of the state when he emerged from prison.
the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth — certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.
Thoreau is referring to the government as a machine, and the only way to stop it is to add friction. Friction is figurative in this paragraph. He is saying that in order to add friction, you might have to break the law. In the last sentence of this paragraph, he is saying that he DOES NOT in any way support the wrong in which he so adamantly disapproves of.
In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither. While I do not intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me ask, if it be not somewhat singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its framers and adopters, a slave-holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave can anywhere be found in it.
The Preamble of the constitution: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." It is interesting that Douglass incorporates this Glorious Liberty Document at the end of his speech. I think that he brought this idea in at the very end because he wanted pepople to think about his questions after he was done speaking. Is slavery among the purposes of the preamble? Douglass's whole speech is framed around why July 4th isn't that same for slaves as it is for free white men. In talking about the constitution, he is asking the people, "Why do we still uphold the ideal of slaveholding if your founding fathers did not put that into the constitution?"
forbearance
Forbearance means showing patience and self-control. It also means to show restraint and tolerance. This is important in this passage because the founding fathers had to demonstrate this quality. They believed that only justice, liberty, and humanity were set in stone. They did not think that slavery and oppression were going to last forever. This concept is what Douglass is emphasizing in this paragraph.
May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot’s heart might be sadder, and the reformer’s brow heavier. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. There is consolation in the thought that America is young. Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. As with rivers so with nations.
Douglass is comparing the young United States with a river. He is saying this because a nation can change course, just as a river can over time. In this particular case, he is talking about how since the nation is so young, the hope that slavery can be abolished is not such a distant thought. He also says, if the nation were older, then there might be less hope, but since the nation is only 76 years old, there is much growing that can be done. Douglass was right in this assumption because 13 years later, slavery was abolished.