What would you call the person that lives in a safe house, to save them from a much worse situation, say a person seeking freedom, escaping violence. The text I am translating refers to the African Americans who were offered a place in Underground Railroad safe houses during the period of slavery in the US.
I'm looking for a generic word (not the official "freedom seekers" or similar) - something that has to do with them being "protected" (a synonym for "protectee")
The sample sentence is:
The comforter on the bed has star and moon patterns... Mother didn’t make it herself... it was a gift from one of her poor protectees when we arrived here. It was a gift from Mrs Dillard, as thanks for the help she’d received.