Amos summed it up very succinctly. To elaborate a bit, here's a copy of my post to the other current thread on this:

This came up a while ago, perhaps on one of the threads linked above. One of our Mudcatters grew up in the South, as did her mother, and she shared with us the explanation her mother gave her, to wit:

Jimmy (presumably a fellow slave to the narrator) has cracked open a jug of corn whiskey in response to the master's death. The narrator, however, is so grief-stricken at the loss of the master that he doesn't even care to have any (whereas normally, it is assumed, he'd jump at the chance).

JIMMY CRACKed open a jug of CORN whiskey, AND I DON'T CARE to have any, because THE MASTER'S GONE AWAY.

Makes sense to me.