I have to take an american literature class and i know nothing about it lol
Well you have a lot to pick from. American literature is literature written or produced in the United States
Oh Ok any famous authors I should get started with?
Mark Twain is very good.  Before the founding of the United States, the British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States were heavily influenced by English literature
Ok I have heard of him who else would you suggest?
I would suggest you search for what interest you. in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that the nation's first novels
I had no idea they went back that far! 
"The Power of Sympathy" was published in 1791. It is very very good
What is the subject matter on that one?
You dont know of William Hill Brown's work? It is a very early piece