This paper explores the spatiality of the psychoanalytic notion of projection in the context of internal orientalism in the U.S. According to the latter idea, “the [US] South” represents an internal Other in the national discourse, whereby this region is thought to be, in a sense, simultaneously within the political boundaries of the state and outside the cultural boundaries of the nation. “The South” in national discourse represents an abject location of racism, poverty, violence, and ignorance, in opposition to the “American” values of tolerance, prosperity, peace and enlightenment. The Freudian notion of projection describes the process by which certain (psychological, social, bodily) characteristics are “projected” from one person onto another. This projection thus says more about the nature of the Self than it can ever say about the Other. The paper considers the ramifications of spatializing the notion of projection such that individuals and groups of people project certain (inferior) characteristics on to a place (and in this case, region). After a theoretical discussion, the paper considers the role of spatial projection in the discussion of the historical legacy of slavery in the US outside the southeastern states.