Most of the colonies and then states explicitly adopted reception statutes, which accepted the English Common Law as precedent in that state usually with a cutoff date. Obviously there were always caveats in that the English common law was not binding if it explicitly conflicted with the Constitution or statutes of the US. http://www.iuslaw.org/reception_statutes.php So, quite literally, the US explicitly accepted English common law as the basis of law in the US. Although time has obviously created some major distinctions, you can't really even have any conceptualization of the American legal system without English common law. It's the very core of the thing.

Most of the men behind the revolution were men of means or men who aspired to be of means. And what they wanted was the same rights an Englishman would have in England.