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