There is a great contrast between Lydia and the women we meet here. She was a slave and was possessed by a spirit that enabled her to predict the future. In doing this she earned a lot of money for her owners. There is such a difference between being filled with the Holy Spirit, who brings freedom, and being possessed by an evil spirit who brings only slavery. There are warnings in the Old Testament against having anything to do with fortune tellers and the like (Deut 18:9-13), and this is because there will be an evil spirit behind it.
Jesus encountered people who had evil spirits and they often shouted out who he was. In a similar way this women shouts out that Paul and his companions were servants of the most high God. Paul put up with this for several days, but then finally got fed up and rebuked the spirit.
The spirit left the woman, and it would seem that there must have been some obvious physical evidence of this. Her owners were angered by the loss of their "little earner", and so took their anger out on Paul and Silas. They took them before the city authorities, accusing Paul and Silas of being anti-Rome. The crowd also joined in the uproar. So Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison. In the prison they were put in the most secure part with their feet fastened to the stocks.
There are parallels here with the trial of Jesus. Jesus was tried on trumped up charges, the crowd joined in, and He was severely beaten.
It is sad that the woman just seems to be a victim, with no mention of what happened to her afterwards.
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