What were the different types of literature in Colonial America?

lnacantu: What were the different types of literature in Colonial America?
So far I’ve got the following:
1-Literature of exploration and adventures
2-Sermons
3-Theological and Polemical writing
4-Diaries or Autobiographies

Did I miss anything significant?
I’m talking strictly about literature. Not all works of this time was mature enough to be considered literature.

Answers and Views:

Answer by ExServer
You are right about most of that. Furthermore though, most fiction was written by women, sometimes but not usually under psuedonyms (because fiction was the craft of women, not men). Furthermore, any sort of novels written in the time were usually epistolary and issued in serial publications. Most novels of the time, for example, Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown, were released chapter by chapter to a literary magazine and constructed in to a full novel for the modern reader. Most of the fictional literature was of a gothic/romantic type as well, with a female heroine and a mysterious male antagonist.

You are correct about the diary/journal aspect. Especially those of early settlers and the native americans. They were seen as real life adventures and were read world wide.

Colonial America also saw the first female black author, Phyllis Wheatley, who was a freed slave and enjoyed wide acceptance.