Lafayette became a member of France’s National Assembly at the onset of the French Revolution

Lafayette rose to prominence among the liberal aristocracy (also known as the Fayettistes) during the following five years as a vocal supporter of religious tolerance and the abolishment of the slave trade. Lafayette was a republican at heart, but he continued to be an aristocrat with close ties to numerous members of the governing royal family. Thomas Jefferson, a friend of Layfayette's, predicted that despite his conflict between those two worlds, Layfayette's strong republican sympathies would prevail.

Ironically, Lafayette performed this duty in his capacity as a member of the Second Estate, or French aristocracy. The Estates-General, France's pre-revolutionary parliament, had been convened by King Louis XVI in 1789. The Estates-General typically voted in groups rather than individually. With the help of the church, or the First Estate, the commoners, or Third Estate, sought to change that. Lafayette backed the commoners' agenda while the majority of nobility objected.

The king decided to close the Estates-General on June 20 as a result. Instead, at a neighboring tennis court, the delegates reconvened as the National Assembly. They took the Tennis Court Oath there, promising to stick together until France had a constitution. With the assistance of Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence's primary architect, the marquis produced one of history's most significant texts regarding human and civil rights, inspired by the ideals of the American Revolution. On August 27, 1789, the Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights was approved by the National Assembly following considerable changes. Lafayette had been chosen as the head of Paris' newly organized national guard on July 15, which is considered one of the interesting facts about Marquis de Lafayette.